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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/17861-8.txt b/17861-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..bcdcafb --- /dev/null +++ b/17861-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4819 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Wrack of the Storm, by Maurice Maeterlinck + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Wrack of the Storm + +Author: Maurice Maeterlinck + +Translator: Alexander Teixeira de Mattos + +Release Date: February 26, 2006 [EBook #17861] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WRACK OF THE STORM *** + + + + +Produced by Diane Monico and the Project Gutenberg Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + + + +THE WRACK OF THE STORM + + + + ++----------------------------------------------+ +| | +| THE WORKS OF MAURICE MAETERLINCK | +| | +| ESSAYS | +| | +| The Treasure of the Humble | +| Wisdom and Destiny | +| The Life of the Bee | +| The Buried Temple | +| The Double Garden | +| The Measure of the Hours | +| On Emerson, and Other Essays | +| Our Eternity | +| The Unknown Guest | +| The Wrack of the Storm | +| | +| PLAYS | +| | +| Sister Beatrice, and Ardiane and Barbe Bleue | +| Joyzelle, and Monna Vanna | +| The Blue Bird, A Fairy Play | +| Mary Magdalene | +| Pélléas and Mélisande, and Other Plays | +| Princess Maleine | +| The Intruder, and Other Plays | +| Aglavaine and Selysette | +| | +| HOLIDAY EDITIONS | +| | +| Our Friend the Dog | +| The Swarm | +| The Intelligence of the Flowers | +| Death | +| Thoughts from Maeterlinck | +| The Blue Bird | +| The Life of the Bee | +| News of Spring and Other Nature Studies | +| Poems | ++----------------------------------------------+ + + + + +The +Wrack of the Storm + +BY + +MAURICE MAETERLINCK + + +_Translated by_ + +ALEXANDER TEIXEIRA DE MATTOS + + +NEW YORK +DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY +1916 + + + + +COPYRIGHT, 1916 +BY DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY, INC. + + + + +AUTHOR'S PREFACE + + +The reader taking up this volume will, for the first time in the work +of one who hitherto had cursed no man, find words of hatred and +malediction. I would gladly have avoided them, for I hold that he who +takes upon himself to write pledges himself to say nothing that can +derogate from the respect and love which we owe to all men. I have had +to utter these words; and I am as much surprised as saddened at what I +have been constrained to say by the force of events and of truth. I +loved Germany and numbered friends there, who now, dead or living, are +alike dead to me. I thought her great and upright and generous; and to +me she was ever kindly and hospitable. But there are crimes that +obliterate the past and close the future. In rejecting hatred I +should have shown myself a traitor to love. + +I tried to lift myself above the fray; but, the higher I rose, the +more I saw of the madness and the horror of it, of the justice of one +cause and the infamy of the other. It is possible that one day, when +time has wearied remembrance and restored the ruins, wise men will +tell us that we were mistaken and that our standpoint was not lofty +enough; but they will say it because they will no longer know what we +know, nor will they have seen what we have seen. + + MAURICE MAETERLINCK. + + NICE, 1916. + + + + +TRANSLATOR'S NOTE + + +The present volume contains, in the chronological order in which they +were produced, all the essays published and all the speeches delivered +by M. Maeterlinck since the beginning of the war, upon which, as will +be perceived, each one of them has a direct bearing. They are printed +as written; and they throw an interesting light upon the successive +phases of the author's psychology during the Titanic and hideous +struggle that has affected the mental attitude of us all. + +_In Italy_ forms the preface to M. Jules Destrée's book, _En Italie +avant la guerre, 1914-15_. Of the remaining essays, some have appeared +in various English and American periodicals; others are now printed in +translation for the first time. + +I have also had M. Maeterlinck's leave to include in this volume his +first published work, _The Massacre of the Innocents_. This powerful +sketch in the Flemish manner saw the light originally in the +_Pléïade_, in 1886, and may at the present time, to use the author's +own words in a note to myself, be regarded as "a sort of vague +symbolic prophecy." An English version by Mrs. Edith Wingate Rinder +was printed in the _Dome_ in 1899; another has since been issued by an +English and by an American firm of publishers; but the only authorized +translation to appear in book form is that now added as an epilogue to +_The Wrack of the Storm_. + + ALEXANDER TEIXEIRA DE MATTOS. + + CHELSEA, 1916. + + + + +CONTENTS + + + PAGE + +AUTHOR'S PREFACE 5 + +TRANSLATOR'S NOTE 7 + + I AFTER THE VICTORY 11 + + II KING ALBERT 21 + + III THE HOSTAGE CITIES 31 + + IV TO SAVE FOUR CITIES 37 + + V PRO PATRIA: I 45 + + VI HEROISM 59 + + VII PRO PATRIA: II 75 + + VIII PRO PATRIA: III 89 + + IX BELGIUM'S FLAG DAY 109 + + X ON THE DEATH OF A LITTLE SOLDIER 117 + + XI THE HOUR OF DESTINY 131 + + XII IN ITALY 147 + + XIII ON REREADING THUCYDIDES 161 + + XIV THE DEAD DO NOT DIE 179 + + XV IN MEMORIAM 191 + + XVI SUPERNATURAL COMMUNICATIONS IN WAR-TIME 197 + + XVII EDITH CAVELL 217 + +XVIII THE LIFE OF THE DEAD 229 + + XIX THE WAR AND THE PROPHETS 241 + + XX THE WILL OF EARTH 257 + + XXI FOR POLAND 271 + + XXII THE MIGHT OF THE DEAD 279 + +XXIII WHEN THE WAR IS OVER 291 + + XXIV THE MASSACRE OF THE INNOCENTS 303 + + * * * * * + + + + +AFTER THE VICTORY + + + + +THE WRACK OF THE STORM + +I + +AFTER THE VICTORY[1] + + +1 + +At these moments of tragedy, none should be allowed to speak who +cannot shoulder a rifle, for the written word seems so monstrously +useless, so overwhelmingly trivial, in front of this mighty drama +which shall for a long time, it may be for ever, free mankind from the +scourge of war: the one scourge among all that cannot be excused, that +cannot be explained, since alone among all it issues entire from the +hands of man. + + +2 + +But it is while this scourge is upon us, while we have our being in +its very centre, that we shall do well to balance the guilt of those +who have committed this inexpiable crime. It is now, while we are in +the thick of the horror, undergoing it, feeling it, that we have the +energy, the clear-sightedness needed to judge it; from the depths of +the most fearful injustice justice is best perceived. When the hour +shall have come for settling accounts--and it will not long delay--we +shall have forgotten much of what we have suffered and a blameworthy +pity will creep over us and cloud our eyes. This is the moment, +therefore, for us to frame our inexorable resolution. After the final +victory, when the enemy is crushed--as crushed he will be--efforts +will be made to enlist our sympathy, to move us to pity. We shall be +told that the unfortunate German people were merely the victims of +their monarch and their feudal caste; that no blame attaches to the +Germany we know, which is so sympathetic and so cordial--the Germany +of quaint old houses and open-hearted greeting, the Germany that sits +under its lime-trees beneath the clear light of the moon--but only to +Prussia, hateful, arrogant Prussia; that the homely, peace-loving, +Bavarian, the genial and hospitable dwellers on the banks of the +Rhine, the Silesian and Saxon and I know not who besides--for all +these will suddenly have become whiter than snow and more inoffensive +than the sheep in an English fold--that they all have merely obeyed, +have been compelled to obey orders which they detested but were unable +to resist. We are face to face with reality now; let us look at it +well and pronounce our sentence; for this is the moment when we hold +the proofs in our hands, when the elements of crime are hot before us +and shout out the truth that soon will fade from our memory. Let us +tell ourselves now, therefore, now, that all that we shall be told +hereafter will be false; and let us unflinchingly adhere to what we +decide at this moment, when the glare of the horror is on us. + + +3 + +It is not true that in this gigantic crime there are innocent and +guilty, or degrees of guilt. They stand on one level, all those who +have taken part in it. The German from the North has no more special +craving for blood and outrage than he from the South has special +tenderness or pity. It is, very simply, the German, from one end of +his country to the other, who stands revealed as a beast of prey which +the firm will of our planet finally repudiates. We have here no +wretched slaves dragged along by a tyrant king who alone is +responsible. Nations have the government which they deserve, or +rather, the government which they have is truly no more than the +magnified and public projection of the private morality and mentality +of the nation. If eighty million innocent people select and support a +monstrous king, those eighty million innocent people merely expose the +inherent falseness and superficiality of their innocence; and it is +the monster they maintain at their head who stands for all that is +true in their nature, because it is he who represents the eternal +aspirations of their race, which lie far deeper than their apparent +and transient virtues. Let there be no suggestion of error, of having +been led astray, of an intelligent people having been tricked or +misled. No nation can be deceived that does not wish to be deceived; +and it is not intelligence that Germany lacks. In the sphere of +intellect such things are not possible; nor in the region of +enlightened, reflecting will. No nation permits herself to be coerced +to the one crime that man cannot pardon. It is of her own accord that +she hastens towards it; her chief has no need to persuade, it is she +who urges him on. + + +4 + +We have forces here quite different from those on the surface, forces +that are secret, irresistible and profound. It is these that we must +judge, these that we must crush under our heel, once and for all; for +they are the only ones that will not be improved or softened or +brought into line by experience or progress, or even by the bitterest +lesson. They are unalterable and immovable, their springs lie far +beneath hope or influence; and they must be destroyed as we destroy a +nest of wasps, since we know that these never can change into a nest +of bees. And, even though individually and singly the Germans were all +innocent and merely led astray, they would be none the less guilty in +the mass. This is the guilt that counts, that alone is actual and +real, because it lays bare, underneath their superficial innocence, +the subconscious criminality of all. + + +5 + +No influence can prevail on the unconscious or the subconscious. It +never evolves. Let there come a thousand years of civilization, a +thousand years of peace, with all possible refinements of art and +education, the subconscious element of the German spirit, which is its +unvarying element, will remain absolutely the same as it is to-day and +would declare itself, when the opportunity came, under the same +aspect, with the same infamy. Through the whole course of history, two +distinct willpowers have been noticed that would seem to be the +opposed, elemental manifestations of the spirit of our globe, the one +seeking only evil, injustice, tyranny and suffering, while the other +strives for liberty, the right, radiance and joy. These two powers +stand once again face to face; our opportunity is now to annihilate +the one that comes from below. Let us know how to be pitiless that we +may have no more need for pity. It is a measure of organic defence. It +is essential that the modern world should stamp out Prussian +militarism as it would stamp out a poisonous fungus that for half a +century had disturbed and polluted its days. The health of our planet +is in question. To-morrow the United States of Europe will have to +take measures for the convalescence of the earth. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 1: Translated by Alfred Sutro.] + + * * * * * + + + + +KING ALBERT + + + + +II + +KING ALBERT + + +1 + +Of all the heroes of this stupendous war, heroes who will live in the +memory of man, one assuredly of the most unsullied, one of those whom +we can never love enough, is the great young king of my little +country. + +He was indeed at the critical hour the appointed man, the man for whom +every heart was waiting. With sudden beauty he embodied the mighty +voice of his people. He stood, upon the moment, for Belgium, revealed +unto herself and unto others. He had the wonderful good fortune to +realize and bestow a conscience in one of those dread hours of tragedy +and perplexity when the best of consciences waver. + +Had he not been at hand, there is no doubt but that all would have +happened differently; and history would have lost one of her fairest +and noblest pages. Certainly Belgium would have been loyal and true to +her word; and any government would have been swept away, pitilessly +and irresistibly, by the indignation of a people that had never, +however far we probe into the past, played false. But there would have +been much of that confusion and irresolution inevitable in a host +suddenly threatened with disaster. There would have been vain talking, +mistaken measures, excusable but irreparable vacillations; and, above +all, the much-needed words, the precise and final words, would not +have been spoken and the deeds, than which we can picture none more +resolute, none greater, would not have been done at the right moment. + +Thanks to the king, the peerless act shines forth and is maintained +complete, unfaltering; and the path of heroism is straight and +clearly defined and splendid as that of Thermopylæ indefinitely +extended. + + +2 + +But what he has suffered, what he suffers day by day only those can +understand who have had the privilege of access to this hero: the most +sensitive and the gentlest of men, silent and reserved; a man of +controlled emotions, modest with a timidity that is at once baffling +and delightful; loving his people less as a father loves his children +than as a son loves his adoring mother. Of all that cherished kingdom, +his pride and his joy, the seat of his happiness, the centre of his +love and his security, there is left intact but a handful of cities, +which are threatened at every moment by the foulest invader that the +world has ever borne. + +All the others--so quaint or so beautiful, so bright, so serene, happy +to be there, so inoffensive--jewels in the crown of Peace, models of +pure and upright family life, homes of loyal and dutiful industry, of +ready, ever-smiling geniality, with the natural welcome, the +ever-proffered hand and the ever-open heart: all the others are dead +cities, of which not one stone is left upon another; and the very +country-side, one of the fairest in this world, with its gentle +pastures, is now no more than one vast field of horror. + +Treasures have perished that were numbered among the noblest and +dearest possessions of mankind; monuments have disappeared which +nothing can replace; and the half of a nation, among all nations the +most attached to its old simple habits, its humble homes, is at +present wandering along the roads of Europe. Thousands of innocent +people have been massacred; and of those who remain nearly all are +doomed to poverty and hunger. + +But that remainder has but one soul, which has taken refuge in the +spacious soul of its king. Not a murmur, not a word of reproach! But +yesterday a town of thirty thousand inhabitants received the order to +forsake its white houses, its churches, its ancient streets and +squares, the scene of a light-hearted and industrious life. The thirty +thousand inhabitants, women and children and old men, set forth to +seek an uncertain refuge in a neighbouring city, which is threatened +almost as directly as their own and which to-morrow, it may be, must +in its turn set forth, but whither none can say, for the country is so +small that its boundaries are quickly reached, its shelter soon +exhausted. + +No matter: they obey in silence and one and all approve and bless +their sovereign. He did what had to be done, what every one in his +place would have done; and, though they are all suffering as no +people has suffered since the barbarous invasions of the earliest +ages, they know that he suffers more than any of them, for in him all +their sorrows find a goal; in him they are reflected and enhanced. +They do not even harbour the idea that they might have been saved by a +sacrifice of honour. They draw no distinction between duty and +destiny. To them that duty, with its frightful consequences, seems as +inevitable as a natural force against which we cannot even dream of +struggling, so great is it and so invincible. + + +3 + +Here is an example of the collective bravery of nameless heroes, an +ingenuous and almost unconscious courage, which rivals and at times +exceeds the most exalted deeds in legend and history, for since the +days of the great martyrs men have never suffered death more simply +for a simple idea. + +And, if amid the anguish of our struggle it were seemly to speak of +aught but tears and lamentations, we should find a magnificent +consolation in the spectacle of the unexpected heroism that suddenly +surrounds us on every side. It may well be said that never in the +memory of mankind have men sacrificed their lives with such zest, such +self-abnegation, such enthusiasm; and that the immortal virtues which +to this day have uplifted and preserved the flower of the human race +have never shone more brilliantly, never manifested greater power, +energy or youth. + + * * * * * + + + + +THE HOSTAGE CITIES + + + + +III + +THE HOSTAGE CITIES + + +1 + +Thanks to the heroism of the Allies, the hour is approaching when the +hordes of William the Madman will quit the soil of afflicted Belgium. + +After what they have done in cold blood, what excesses, what disasters +must we not expect of the last convulsions of their rage? Our anguish +is all the more poignant in that they are at this moment fighting in +the most ancient and most precious portion of Flanders. Above all +countries, this is historic and hallowed land. They have destroyed +Termonde, Roulers, Charleroi, Mons, Namur, Thielt and more besides; +happy, charming little towns, which will rise again from their ashes, +more beautiful than before. They have annihilated Louvain and +Malines; they have but lately levelled Dixmude; their torches, their +incendiary squirts and their bombs are about to attack Brussels, +Antwerp, Ghent, Bruges, Ypres and Furnes, which are like so many +living museums, forming one of the most delightful, delicate and +fragile ornaments of Europe. The things which are beginning here and +which may be completed would be irreparable. They would mean a loss to +our race for which nothing could atone. A quite peculiar +aspect--familiar, kindly, racy of the soil and unique--of that beauty +which a long series of comely human lives is able to acquire and to +hoard would disappear for ever from the face of the earth; and we +cannot, in the trouble and confusion of these too tragic hours, +realize the extent, the meaning or the consequences of such a crime. + + +2 + +We have made every sacrifice without complaining; but this would +exceed all measure. What can be done? How are we to stop them? They +seem to be no longer accessible to reason or to any of the feelings +which men hold in honour; they are sensible only to blows. Very soon, +as they must know, we shall have the power to strike them shrewdly. +Why do not the Allies, this very day, swiftly, while yet there is +time, name so many hostage cities, which would be answerable, stone +for stone, for the existence of our own dear towns? If Brussels, for +example, should be destroyed, then Berlin should be razed to the +ground. If Antwerp were devastated, Hamburg would disappear. Nuremburg +would guarantee Bruges; Munich would stand surety for Ghent. + +At the present moment, when they are feeling the wind of defeat that +blows through their tattered standard, it is possible that this +solemn threat, officially pronounced, would force them to reflect, if +indeed they are still at all capable of reflection. It is the only +expedient that remains to us and there is no time to be lost. With +certain adversaries the most barbarous threats are legitimate and +necessary, for these threats speak the only language which they can +understand. And our children must not one day be able to reproach us +with not having attempted everything--even that which is most +repugnant--to save the treasures which are theirs by right. + + * * * * * + + + + +TO SAVE FOUR CITIES + + + + +IV + +TO SAVE FOUR CITIES + + +1 + +First Louvain, Malines, Termonde, Lierre, Dixmude, Nieuport (and I am +speaking only of the disasters of Flanders); now Ypres is no more and +Furnes is half in ruins. By the side of the great Flemish cities, +Brussels, Antwerp, Ghent and Bruges, those vast and incomparable +living museums which have been watchfully preserved by a whole people, +a people above all others attached to its traditions, they formed a +constellation of little towns, delightful and hospitable, too little +known to travellers. Each of them wore its own expression, of peace, +pleasantness, innocent mirth, or meditation. Each possessed its +treasures, jealously guarded: its belfries, its churches, its canals, +its old bridges, its quiet convents, its ancient houses, which gave +it a special physiognomy, never to be forgotten by those who had +beheld it. + +But the indisputable queen of these beautiful forsaken cities was +Ypres, with its enormous market-place, bordered by little +dwelling-houses with stepped gables, and its prodigious +market-buildings, which occupied one whole side of the immense oblong. +This market-place haunted for ever the memory of those who had seen +it, were it but once, while waiting to change trains; it was so +unexpected, so magical, so dream-like almost, in its disproportion to +the rest of the town. While the ancient city, whose life had withdrawn +itself from century to century, was gradually shrinking all around it, +the Grand'Place itself remained an immovable, gigantic, magnificent +witness to the might and opulence of old, when Ypres was, with Ghent +and Bruges, one of the three queens of the western world, one of the +most strenuous centres of human industry and activity and the cradle +of our great liberties. Such as it was yesterday--alas, that I cannot +say, such as it is to-day!--this square, with the enormous but +unspeakably harmonious mass of those market-buildings, at once +powerful and graceful, wild, gloomy, proud, yet genial, was one of the +most wonderful and perfect spectacles that could be seen in any town +on this old earth of ours. While of a different order of architecture, +built of other elements and standing under sterner skies, it should +have been as precious to man, as sacred and as intangible as the +Piazza di San Marco at Venice, the Signoria at Florence or the Piazza +del Duomo at Pisa. It constituted a peerless specimen of art, which at +all times wrung a cry of admiration from the most indifferent, an +ornament which men hoped was imperishable, one of those things of +beauty which, in the words of the poet, are a joy forever. + + +2 + +I cannot believe that it no longer exists; and yet in this horrible +war we have to believe everything and, above all, the worst. Now, +fatally and inevitably, it will be the turn of the Belfry of Bruges; +and then the tide of barbarians will rise against Ghent and Antwerp +and Brussels; and there will forthwith disappear one of those portions +of the world's surface in which was hoarded the greatest wealth of +beauty and of memories and of the stuff of history. We did what we +could to preserve it; we could do no more. The most heroic of armies +are powerless to prevent the bandits whom they are driving back from +murdering the women and children or from deliberately and uselessly +destroying all that they find along their path of retreat. There is +only one hope left us: the immediate and imperious intervention of +the neutral powers. It is towards them that we turn our tortured gaze. +Two great nations notably--Italy and the United States--hold in their +hands the fate of these last treasures, whose loss would one day be +reckoned among the heaviest and the most irreparable that have been +suffered in the course of long centuries of human civilization. They +can do what they will; it is time for them to do that which it is no +longer lawful to leave undone. By its frantic lies, the beast from +over the Rhine, standing at bay and in peril of death, shows plainly +enough the importance which it attaches to the opinion of the only +nations which the execration of all that lives and breathes have not +yet armed against it. It is afraid. It feels that all is crumbling +under foot, that it is being shunned and abandoned. It seeks in every +direction a glance that does not curse it. It must not, it shall not +find that glance. It is not necessary to tell Italy what our +imperilled cities are worth; for Italy is preeminently the land of +noble cities. + +Our cause is her cause; she owes us her support. When a work of beauty +is destroyed, her own genius and her own eternal gods are outraged. As +for America, she more than any other country stands for the future. +She should think of the days that will follow after this war. When the +great peace descends upon the earth, let not the earth be found desert +and robbed of all its jewels. The places at which the earth is +beautiful because of centuries of effort, because of the successful +zeal and patience and genius of a race, are not so many. This corner +of Flanders, over which death now hovers, is one of those consecrated +spots. Were it to perish, men as yet unborn, men who at last, perhaps, +will achieve happiness, would lack memories and examples which nothing +could replace. + + * * * * * + + + + +PRO PATRIA: I + + + + +V + +PRO PATRIA: I[2] + + +1 + +I need not here recall the events that hurled Belgium into the depths +of distress most glorious where she is struggling to-day. She has been +punished as never nation was punished for doing her duty as never +nation did before. She saved the world while knowing that she could +not be saved. She saved it by flinging herself in the path of the +oncoming barbarians, by allowing herself to be trampled to death in +order to give the defenders of justice time, not to rescue her, for +she was well aware that rescue could not come in time, but to collect +the forces needed to save our Latin civilization from the greatest +danger that has ever threatened it. She has thus done this +civilization, which is the only one whereunder the majority of men are +willing or able to live, a service exactly similar to that which +Greece, at the time of the great Asiatic invasions, rendered to the +mother of this civilization. But, while the service is similar, the +act surpasses all comparison. We may ransack history in vain for aught +to approach it in grandeur. The magnificent sacrifice at Thermopylæ, +which is perhaps the noblest action in the annals of war, is illumined +with an equally heroic but less ideal light, for it was less +disinterested and more material. Leonidas and his three hundred +Spartans were in fact defending their homes, their wives, their +children, all the realities which they had left behind them. King +Albert and his Belgians, on the other hand, knew full well that, in +barring the invader's road, they were inevitably sacrificing their +homes, their wives and their children. Unlike the heroes of Sparta, +instead of possessing an imperative and vital interest in fighting, +they had everything to gain by not fighting and nothing to lose--save +honour. In the one scale were fire and the sword, ruin, massacre, the +infinite disaster which we see; in the other was that little word +honour, which also represents infinite things, but things which we do +not see, or which we must be very pure and very great to see quite +clearly. It has happened now and again in history that a man standing +higher than his fellows perceives what this word represents and +sacrifices his life and the life of those whom he loves to what he +perceives; and we have not without reason devoted to such men a sort +of cult that places them almost on a level with the gods. But what had +never yet happened--and I say this without fear of contradiction from +whosoever cares to search the memory of man--is that a whole people, +great and small, rich and poor, learned and ignorant, deliberately +immolated itself thus for the sake of an unseen thing. + + +2 + +And observe that we are not discussing one of those heroic resolutions +which are taken in a moment of enthusiasm, when man easily surpasses +himself, and which have not to be maintained when, forgetting his +intoxication, he lapses on the morrow to the dead level of his +everyday life. We are concerned with a resolution that has had to be +taken and maintained every morning, for now nearly four months, in the +midst of daily increasing distress and disaster. And not only has this +resolution not wavered by a hair's breadth, but it grows as steadily +as the national misfortune; and to-day, when this misfortune is +reaching its full, the national resolution is likewise attaining its +zenith. I have seen many of my refugee fellow-countrymen: some used to +be rich and had lost their all; others were poor before the war and +now no longer owned even what the poorest own. I have received many +letters from every part of Europe where duty's exiles had sought a +brief instant of repose. In them there was lamentation, as was only +too natural, but not a reproach, not a regret, not a word of +recrimination. I did not once come upon that hopeless but excusable +cry which, one would think, might so easily have sprung from +despairing lips: + +"If our king had not done what he did, we should not be suffering what +we are suffering to-day." + +The idea does not even occur to them. It is as though this thought +were not of those which can live in that atmosphere purified by +misfortune. They are not resigned, for to be resigned means to +renounce the strife, no longer to keep up one's courage. They are +proud and happy in their distress. They have a vague feeling that this +distress will regenerate them after the manner of a baptism of faith +and glory and ennoble them for all time in the remembrance of men. An +unexpected breath, coming from the secret reserves of the human race +and from the summits of the human heart, has suddenly passed over +their lives and given them a single soul, formed of the same heroic +substance as that of their great king. + + +3 + +They have done what had never before been done; and it is to be hoped +for the happiness of mankind that no nation will ever again be called +upon for a like sacrifice. But this wonderful example will not be +lost, even though there be no longer any occasion to imitate it. At a +time when the universal conscience seemed about to bend under the +weight of long prosperity and selfish materialism, suddenly it raised +by several degrees what we may term the political morality of the +world and lifted it all at once to a height which it had not yet +reached and from which it will never again be able to descend, for +there are actions so glorious, actions which fill so great a place in +our memory, that they found a sort of new religion and definitely fix +the limits of the human conscience and of human loyalty and courage. + +They have really, as I have already said and as history will one day +establish with greater eloquence and authority than mine, they have +really saved Latin civilization. They had stood for centuries at the +junction of two powerful and hostile forms of culture. They had to +choose and they did not hesitate. Their choice was all the more +significant, all the more instructive, inasmuch as none was so well +qualified as they to choose with a full knowledge of what they were +doing. You are all aware that more than half of Belgium is of Teutonic +stock. She was therefore, thanks to her racial affinities, better able +than any other to understand the culture that was being offered her, +together with the imputation of dishonour which it included. She +understood it so well that she rejected it with an outbreak of horror +and disgust unparalleled in violence, spontaneous, unanimous and +irresistible, thus pronouncing a verdict from which there was no +appeal and giving the world a peremptory lesson sealed with every drop +of her blood. + + +4 + +But to-day she is at the end of her resources. She has exhausted not +her courage but her strength. She has paid with all that she possesses +for the immense service which she has rendered to mankind. Thousands +and thousands of her children are dead; all her riches have perished; +almost all her historic memories, which were her pride and her +delight, almost all her artistic treasures, which were numbered among +the fairest in this world, are destroyed for ever. She is nothing more +than a desert whence stand out, more or less intact, four great towns +alone, four towns which the Rhenish hordes, for whom the epithet of +barbarians is in point of fact too honourable, appear to have spared +only so that they may keep back one last and monstrous revenge for the +day of the inevitable rout. It is certain that Antwerp, Ghent, Bruges +and Brussels are doomed beyond recall. In particular, the admirable +Grand'Place, the Hôtel de Ville and the Cathedral at Brussels are, I +know, undermined: I repeat, I know it from private and trustworthy +testimony against which no denial can prevail. A spark will be enough +to turn one of the recognized marvels of Europe into a heap of ruins +like those of Ypres, Malines and Louvain. Soon after--for, short of +immediate intervention, the disaster is as certain as though it were +already accomplished--Bruges, Antwerp and Ghent will suffer the same +fate; and in a moment, as I was saying the other day, there will +vanish from sight one of the corners of this earth in which the +greatest store of memories, of historic matter and artistic beauties +had been accumulated. + + +5 + +The time has come to end this foolery! The time has come for +everything that draws breath to rise up against these systematic, +insane and stupid acts of destruction, perpetrated without any +military excuse or strategic object. The reason why we are at last +uttering a great cry of distress, we who are above all a silent +people, the reason why we turn to your mighty and noble country is +that Italy is to-day the only European power that is still in a +position to stop the unchained brute on the brink of his crime. You +are ready. You have but to stretch out a hand to save us. We have not +come to beg for our lives: these no longer count with us and we have +already offered them up. But, in the name of the last beautiful things +that the barbarians have left us, we come with our prayers to the land +of all beautiful things. It must not be, it shall not be that, on the +day when at last we return, not to our homes, for most of these are +destroyed, but to our native soil, that soil is so laid waste as to +have become an unrecognizable desert. You know better than any others +what memories mean, what masterpieces mean to a nation, for your +country is covered with memories and masterpieces. It is also the +land of justice and the cradle of the law, which is simply justice +that has taken cognizance of itself. On this account, Italy owes us +justice. And she owes it to herself to put a stop to the greatest +iniquity in the annals of history, for not to put a stop to it when +one has the power is almost tantamount to taking part in it. It is for +Italy as much as for France that we have suffered. She is the source, +she is the very mother of the ideal for which we have fought and for +which the last of our soldiers are still fighting in the last of our +trenches. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 2: Delivered at the Scala Theatre, Milan, 30 November, +1914.] + + * * * * * + + + + +HEROISM + + + + +VI + +HEROISM + + +1 + +One of the consoling surprises of this war is the unlooked-for and, so +to speak, universal heroism which it has revealed among all the +nations taking part in it. + +We were rather inclined to believe that courage, physical and moral +fortitude, self-denial, stoicism, the renunciation of every sort of +comfort, the faculty of self-sacrifice and the power of facing death +belonged only to the more primitive, the less happy, the less +intelligent nations, to the nations least capable of reasoning, of +appreciating danger and of picturing in their imagination the dreadful +abyss that separates this life from the life unknown. We were even +almost persuaded that war would one day cease for lack of soldiers, +that is to say, of men foolish enough or unhappy enough to risk the +only absolute realities--health, physical comfort, an unimpaired body +and, above all, life, the greatest of earthly possessions--for the +sake of an ideal which, like all ideals, is more or less invisible. + +And this argument seemed the more natural and convincing because, as +existence grew gentler and men's nerves more sensitive, the means of +destruction by war showed themselves more cruel, ruthless and +irresistible. It seemed more and more probable that no man would ever +again endure the infernal horrors of a battlefield and that, after the +first slaughter, the opposing armies, officers and men alike, all +seized with insuppressible panic, would turn their backs upon one +another, in simultaneous, supernatural affright, and flee from +unearthly terrors exceeding the most monstrous anticipations of those +who had let them loose. + + +2 + +To our great astonishment the very opposite is now proclaimed. + +We realize with amazement that until to-day we had but an incomplete +and inaccurate conception of man's courage. We looked upon it as an +exceptional virtue and one which is the more admired as being also the +rarer the farther we go back in history. Remember, for instance, +Homer's heroes, the ancestors of all the heroes of our day. Study them +closely. These models of antiquity, the first professors, the first +masters of bravery, are not really very brave. They have a wholesome +dread of being hit or wounded and an ingenuous and manifest fear of +death. Their mighty conflicts are declamatory and decorative but not +so very bloody; they inflict more noise than pain upon their +adversaries, they deliver many more words than blows. Their defensive +weapons--and this is characteristic--are greatly superior to their +arms of offence; and death is an unusual, unforeseen and almost +indecorous event which throws the ranks into disorder and most often +puts a stop to the combat or provokes a headlong flight that seems +quite natural. As for the wounds, these are enumerated and described, +sung and deplored as so many remarkable phenomena. On the other hand, +the most discreditable routs, the most shameful panics are frequent; +and the old poet relates them, without condemning them, as ordinary +incidents to be ascribed to the gods and inevitable in any warfare. + +This kind of courage is that of all antiquity, more or less. We will +not linger over it, nor delay to consider the battles of the Middle +Ages or the Renascence, in which the fiercest hand-to-hand encounters +of the mercenaries often left not more than half-a-dozen victims on +the field. Let us rather come straight to the great wars of the +Empire. Here the courage displayed begins to resemble our own, but +with notable differences. In the first place, those concerned were +solely professionals. We see not a whole nation fighting, but a +delegation, a martial selection, which, it is true, becomes gradually +more extensive, but never, as in our time, embraces every man between +eighteen and fifty years of age capable of shouldering a weapon. +Again--and above all--every war was reduced to two or three pitched +battles, that is to say, two or three culminating moments; immense +efforts, but efforts of a few hours, or a day at most, towards which +the combatants directed all the vigour and all the heroism accumulated +during long weeks or months of preparation and waiting. Afterwards, +whether the result was victory or defeat, the fighting was over; +relaxation, respite and rest followed; men went back to their homes. +Destiny must not be defied more than once; and they knew that in the +most terrible affray the chances of escaping death were as twenty to +one. + + +3 + +Nowadays, everything is changed; and death itself is no longer what it +was. Formerly, you looked it in the face, you knew whence it came and +who sent it to you. It had a dreadful aspect, but one that remained +human. Its ways were not unknown: its long spells of sleep, its brief +awakenings, its bad days and dangerous hours. At present, to all these +horrors it adds the great, intolerable fear of mystery. It no longer +has any aspect, no longer has habits or spells of sleep and it is +never still. It is always ready, always on the watch, everywhere +present, scattered, intangible and dense, stealthy and cowardly, +diffuse, all-encompassing, innumerous, looming at every point of the +horizon, rising from the waters and falling from the skies, +indefatigable, inevitable, filling the whole of space and time for +days, weeks and months without a minute's lull, without a second's +intermission. Men live, move and sleep in the meshes of its fatal web. +They know that the least step to the right or left, a head bowed or +lifted, a body bent or upright is seen by its eyes and draws its +thunder. + +Hitherto we had no example of this preponderance of the destructive +forces. We should never have believed that man's nerves could resist +so great a trial. The nerves of the bravest man are tempered to face +death for the space of a second, but not to live in the hourly +expectation of death and nothing else. Heroism was once a sharp and +rugged peak, reached for a moment but soon quitted, for +mountain-peaks are not inhabitable. To-day it is a boundless plain, as +uninhabitable as the peaks; but we are not permitted to descend from +it. And so, at the very moment when man appeared most exhausted and +enervated by the comforts and vices of civilization, at the moment +when he was happiest and therefore most selfish, when, possessing the +minimum of faith and vainly seeking a new ideal, he seemed least +capable of sacrificing himself for an idea of any kind, he finds +himself suddenly confronted with an unprecedented danger, which he is +almost certain that the most heroic nations of history would not have +faced nor even dreamed of facing, whereas he does not even dream that +it is possible to do aught but face it. And let it not be said that we +had no choice, that the danger and the struggle were thrust upon us, +that we had to defend ourselves or die and that in such cases there +are no cowards. It is not true: there was, there always has been, +there still is a choice. + + +4 + +It is not man's life that is at stake, but the idea which he forms of +the honour, the happiness and the duties of his life. To save his life +he had but to submit to the enemy; the invader would not have +exterminated him. You cannot exterminate a great people; it is not +even possible to enslave it seriously or to inflict great sorrow upon +it for long. He had nothing to be afraid of except disgrace. He did +not so much as see the infamous temptation appear above the horizon of +his most instinctive fears; he does not even suspect that it is able +to exist; and he will never perceive it, whatever sacrifices may yet +await him. We are not, therefore, speaking of a heroism that would be +but the last resource of despair, the heroism of the animal driven to +bay and fighting blindly to delay death's coming for a moment. No, it +is heroism freely donned, deliberately and unanimously hailed, heroism +on behalf of an idea and a sentiment, in other words, heroism in its +clearest, purest and most virginal form, a disinterested and +whole-hearted sacrifice for that which men regard as their duty to +themselves, to their kith and kin, to mankind and to the future. If +life and personal safety were more precious than the idea of honour, +of patriotism and of fidelity to tradition and the race, there was, I +repeat, and there is still a choice to be made; and never perhaps in +any war was the choice easier, for never did men feel more free, never +indeed were they more free to choose. + +But this choice, as I have said, did not dare show its faintest shadow +on the lowest horizons of even the most ignoble consciences. Are you +quite sure that, in other times which we think better and more +virtuous than our own, men would not have seen it, would not have +spoken of it? Can you find a nation, even among the greatest, which, +after six months of a war compared with which all other wars seem +child's-play, of a war which threatens and uses up all that nation's +life and all its possessions, can you find, I say, in history, not an +instance--for there is no instance--but some similar case which allows +you to presume that the nation would not have faltered, would not at +least, were it but for a second, have looked down and cast its eyes +upon an inglorious peace? + + +5 + +Nevertheless, they seemed much stronger than we are, all those who +came before us. They were rude, austere, much closer to nature, poor +and often unhappy. They had a simpler and a more rigid code of +thought; they had the habit of physical suffering, of hardship and of +death. But I do not believe that any one dares contend that these men +would have done what our soldiers are now doing, that they would have +endured what is being endured all around us. Are we not entitled to +conclude from this that civilization, contrary to what was feared, so +far from enervating, depraving, weakening, lowering and dwarfing man, +elevates him, purifies him, strengthens him, ennobles him, makes him +capable of acts of sacrifice, generosity and courage which he did not +know before? The fact is that civilization, even when it seems to +entail corruption, brings intelligence with it and that intelligence, +in days of trial, stands for potential pride, nobility and heroism. +That, as I said in the beginning, is the unexpected and consoling +revelation of this horrible war: we can rely on man implicitly, place +the greatest trust in him, nor fear lest, in laying aside his +primitive brutality, he should lose his manly qualities. The greater +his progress in the conquest of nature and the greater his apparent +attachment to material welfare, the more does he become capable, +nevertheless, unconsciously, deep down in the best part of him, of +self-detachment and of self-sacrifice for the common safety and the +more does he understand that he is nothing when he compares himself +with the eternal life of his forbears and his children. + +It was so great a trial that we dared not, before this war, have +contemplated it. The future of the human race was at stake; and the +magnificent response that comes to us from every side reassures us +fully as to the issue of other struggles, more formidable still, which +no doubt await us when it will be a question no longer of fighting our +fellow-men, but rather of facing the more powerful and cruel of the +great mysterious enemies that nature holds in reserve against us. If +it be true, as I believe, that humanity is worth just as much as the +sum total of latent heroism which it contains, then we may declare +that humanity was never stronger nor more exemplary than now and that +it is at this moment reaching one of its highest points and capable of +braving everything and hoping everything. And it is for this reason +that, despite our present sadness, we are entitled to congratulate +ourselves and to rejoice. + + * * * * * + + + + +PRO PATRIA: II + + + + +VII + +PRO PATRIA: II[3] + + +1 + +More than three months ago, I was in one of the grandest of your +cities, a city that welcomed in a manner which I shall never forget +the cause which I had come among you to represent. I was there, as I +told my hearers at the time, in the name of the last remnants of +beauty that the barbarians had left us, to plead with the land of +every kind of beauty. Those threatened beauties, our only cities yet +intact, the treasures and sanctuaries of our whole past and of all our +race, are still reeling on the brink of the same abyss and, failing a +miracle which we dare not hope for, they will suffer the fate of +Ypres, Louvain, Malines, Termonde, Dixmude and so many other less +illustrious victims. The danger in which they stand has no doubt +aroused the indignation of the civilized world; but not a hand has +armed itself to defend them. I blame no one; I reproach no one; the +morality of the nations is a virtue that has not yet emerged from the +state of infancy; and fortunately, by the hazard of war, it is not yet +too late to save four innocent cities. + +To-day I have not come to speak of monuments, of historical relics, +nor even of the wrongs committed, of the violation of all the rights +and laws of warfare and every international convention, of +incendiarism, pillage and massacre; I have come simply to utter before +you the last distressful cry of a dying nation. + +At this moment a tragedy is being enacted in Belgium such as has no +precedent in the history of civilized peoples, nor even in that of +the barbarians, for the barbarians, when committing their most +stupendous crimes, lacked the infernal deliberation and the +scientific, all-powerful means of working evil which to-day are in the +hands of those who profit by the resources and benefits of +civilization only to turn them against it and to seek the annihilation +of all its noblest and most generous characteristics. The despairing +rumours of this tragedy come to us only through the chinks of that +ensanguined well which isolates it from the rest of the world. Nothing +reaches our ears but the lies of the enemy. In reality, the whole of +Belgium is one huge Prussian prison, where every cry is cruelly and +methodically stifled and where no voices are heard save those of the +gaolers. Only now and again, after a thousand adventures, despite a +thousand perils, a letter from some kinsman or captive friend arrives +from the depths of that great living cemetery, bringing us a gleam of +authentic truth. + + +2 + +You are as familiar with this truth as I am. At the moment when her +soil was invaded, Belgium numbered seven million seven hundred +thousand inhabitants. It is estimated that between two hundred and +fifty and three hundred thousand have perished in battle or massacre, +or as the result of misery and privation; and I am not speaking of the +infant children, the sacrifice of whom, owing to the dearth of milk, +has, it appears, been frightful. Five or six hundred thousand +unfortunates have fled to Holland, France or England. There remain +therefore in the country nearly seven million inhabitants; and more +than half of these seven millions are living almost exclusively on +American charity. In what is above all an industrial country, +producing normally, in time of peace, less than a third part of the +wheat necessary for home consumption, the enemy has systematically +requisitioned everything, carried off everything, for the upkeep of +his armies, and has sent into Germany what he could not consume on the +spot. The result of so monstrous a proceeding may readily be divined: +on all that soil, once so happy and so rich, to-day taxed and pillaged +and pillaged again, ravaged and devastated by fire and the sword, +there is nothing left. And the situation of suffering Belgium is so +cruelly paradoxical that her best friends, her dearest allies, even +those whom she has saved, are powerless to succour her. Isolated as +she is from the rest of the world, she would have starved even though +nothing had been taken from her. Now she has been despoiled of all +that she possessed, while France and England can send her neither +money nor provisions, for they would fall into the hands of those +engaged in torturing her, so much so that every attempt on their part +to alleviate her sufferings would but retard her deliverance still +further. Did history ever witness a more poignant, a more desperate +tragedy? It is a fact that in the midst of this war we are constantly +finding ourselves confronted with events such as history hitherto has +never beheld. A people resembling an enormous beast of prey, in order +to punish a loyalty and heroism which, if it retained the slightest +notion of justice and injustice, the smallest sense of human dignity +and honour, it ought to worship on its knees: this vast predatory race +stealthily resolved to exterminate an inoffensive little nation whose +soul it felt was too great to be enslaved or reduced to the semblance +of its conqueror's. It was on the point of succeeding, amid the +silence, the impotence, or the terror of the world, when from beyond +the Atlantic a generous nation took that heroic little people under +its protection. It understood that what was involved was not merely an +act of justice and elementary pity, but also and more particularly a +higher duty towards the morality and the eternal conscience of +mankind. Thanks to this great nation's intervention, it will not be +said, in the days to come, that justice, loyalty, honesty and heroism +are no more than dangerous illusions and a fool's bargain, or that +evil must necessarily, at all times and places, conquer whenever it is +backed by force, or that the only reward which duty magnificently done +may hope to receive on this earth is every manner of grief and +disaster, ending in death by starvation. So immense and triumphant an +example of iniquity would strike the ideals of mankind a blow from +which they would not recover for centuries. + + +3 + +But already this help is becoming exhausted; it cannot be indefinitely +prolonged; and very soon it will be insufficient. It is, moreover, at +the mercy of the slightest diplomatic or political complication; and +its failure will be irreparable. It will mean utter famine, unexampled +extermination, which till the end of the world will cry to heaven for +vengeance. It is no longer a question of weeks or months, but one of +days. That is where we stand; and these are the last hours granted by +destiny to an inactive Europe wherein to expunge the shame of her +indifference. + +These hours belong almost solely to you, for others have not your +power. Whatever may happen, however long you may postpone the issue, +one of these days you will be obliged to join in the fray. Everything +advises, everything orders you to do so; and I can see nothing on the +side of honour, justice or humanity, on the side of the will of the +centuries or the human race, nor even on the side of prudence and +self-interest, that allows you to avoid it. Is it not better and more +worthy of yourselves than all the subtleties, plottings and petty +bargainings of diplomacy? + +The one hour, the peremptory hour has struck when your aid can break +the balance between the powers of good and evil which, for more than +two hundred days, have kept the future of Europe hanging over the +abyss. + +Fate has granted you the magnificent boon, the all but divine +privilege, of saving from the most horrible of deaths four or five +millions of innocent human beings, four or five millions of martyrs +who have performed the finest action that a people could perform and +who are perishing because they defended the ideals which your fathers +taught them. I know that we are faced by duties which until to-day had +never entered into the morality of States; for it is but too true that +this morality still lags a thousand miles behind that of the meanest +peasant. But, if such a thing has never yet been done, it is all the +more glorious to be the first to do it, to make an effort that will +raise the life of nations to a level which the life of the individual +has long since attained. And no people is better qualified than the +Italian to make this effort which the world and the future are +awaiting as a deliverance. + +But I will say no more. I have been reproached for speaking of matters +which, as a foreigner, I ought not to discuss. I believed that these +great questions of humanity interested the whole human race. Perhaps I +was wrong. I will respect the profound silence in which great actions +are developed; and I leave to the meditation of your hearts that which +I am constrained to leave unsaid. They will tell you very much better +than I could all that I had to say to you. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 3: Delivered in Rome, before the Associazione della Stampa, +13 March, 1915.] + + * * * * * + + + + +PRO PATRIA: III + + + + +VIII + +PRO PATRIA: III[4] + + +1 + +Although nothing entitles me to the honour of addressing you in the +name of my refugee countrymen, nevertheless it is only fitting, since +a kindly insistence brings me here, that I should in the first place +give thanks to England for the manner in which she welcomed them in +their distress. I am but a voice in the crowd; and, if my words exceed +the limits of this hall and lend to him who utters them an authority +which he himself does not possess, it is only because they are filled +with unbounded gratitude. + +In this horrible war, whose stakes are the salvation and the future of +mankind, let us first of all salute our wonderful sister, France, who +is supporting the heaviest burden and who, for more than eleven +months, having broken its first and most formidable onslaught, has +been struggling, foot by foot, at closest quarters, without faltering, +without remission, with an heroic smile, against the most formidable +organization of pillage, massacre and devastation that the world or +hell itself has seen since man first learnt the history of the planet +on which he lives. We have here a revelation of qualities and virtues +surpassing all that we expected from a nation which nevertheless had +accustomed us to expect of her all that goes to make the beauty and +the glory of humanity. One must reside in France, as I have done for +many years, to understand and admire as it deserves the incomparable +lesson in courage, abnegation, firmness, determination, coolness, +conscious dignity, self-mastery, good-humour, chivalrous generosity +and utter charity and self-sacrifice which this great and noble +people, which has civilized more than half the globe, is at the +present moment teaching the civilized world. + +Let us also salute boundless Russia, with her wonderful soldiers, +innocent and ingenuous as the saints of old, ignorant of fear as +children who do not yet know the meaning of death. Yonder, along a +formidable front running from the Baltic to the Black Sea, with silent +multitudinous heroism, amid defeats which are but victories delayed, +she is beginning the great work of our deliverance, Lastly let us +greet Servia, small but prodigious, whom we must one day place on the +summit of that monument of glory which Europe will raise to-morrow to +the memory of those who have freed her from her chains. + +So much for them. They have a right to all our gratitude, to all our +admiration. They are doing magnificently all that had to be done. But +they occupy a place apart in duty's splendid hierarchy. They are the +protagonists of direct, material, tangible, undeniable, inevitable +duty. This war is their war. If they would not accept the worst of +disgraces, if they were not prepared to suffer servitude, massacre, +ruin and famine, they had to undertake it; they could not do +otherwise. They were attacked by the born enemy, the irreducible and +absolute enemy, of whom they knew enough to understand that they had +nothing to expect from him but total and unremitting disaster. It was +a question of their continued existence in this world. They had no +choice; they had to defend themselves; and any other nation in their +place would have done the same, only there are few who would have done +it with the same spirit of self-abnegation, the same devotion, the +same perseverance, the same loyalty and the same smiling courage. + + +2 + +But for us Belgians--and we may say as much for you English--it was +not a question of this kind of duty. The horrible drama did not +concern us. It demanded only the right to pass us by without touching +us; and, far from doing us any harm, it would have flooded us with the +unclaimed riches which armies on the march drag in their wake. We +Belgians in particular, peaceable, hospitable, inoffensive and almost +unarmed, should, by the very treaties which assured our existence, +have remained complete strangers to this war. To be sure, we loved +France, because we knew her as well as we knew ourselves and because +she makes herself beloved by all who know her. But we entertained no +hatred of Germany. It is true that, in spite of the virtues which we +believed her to possess but which were merely the mask of a spy, our +hearts barely responded to her obsequiously treacherous advances. For +the German, of all the inhabitants of our planet, has this one and +singular peculiarity, that he arouses in us, from the onset, a +profound, instinctive, intuitive feeling of antipathy. But, even so +and wherever our preferences may have lain, our treaties, our pledged +word, the very reason of our existence, all forbade us to take part in +the conflict. Then came the incredible ultimatum, the monstrous demand +of which you know, which gave us twelve hours to choose between ruin +and death or dishonour. As you also know, we did not need twelve hours +to make our choice. This choice was no more than a cry of indignation +and resolution, spontaneous, fierce and irresistible. We did not stay +for a moment to ponder the extenuating circumstances which our +weakness might have invoked. We did not for a moment consider the +absolution which history would have granted us later, on realizing +that a conflict between forces so completely disproportioned was +futile, that we must inevitably be crushed, massacred and annihilated +and that the sacrifice of a little people in its entirety could +prevent nothing, could barely cause delay and would have no weight in +the immense balance into which the world's destinies were about to be +flung. There was no question of all this; we saw one thing only: our +plighted word. For that word we must die; and since then we have been +dying. Trace the course of history as far back as you will; question +the nations of the earth; then name those who have done or who would +have done what we did. How many will you find? I am not judging those +whom I pass over in silence, for to do so would be to enter into the +secret of men's hearts which I have not the right to violate; but in +any case there is one which I can name aloud, without fear of being +mistaken; and that is the British nation. This people too entered into +the conflict, not through interest or necessity or inherited hatred, +but simply for a matter of honour. It has not suffered what we have +suffered; it has not risked what we have risked, which is all that we +possessed beneath the arch of heaven; but it owes this immunity only +to outside circumstances. The principle and the quality of the act are +the same. We stand on the same plane, one step higher than the other +combatants. While the others are the soldiers of necessity, we are the +volunteers of honour; and, without detracting from their merits, this +title adds to ours all that a pure and disinterested idea adds to the +noblest acts of courage. There is not a doubt but that in our place +you would have done precisely what we did. You would have done it with +the same simplicity, the same calm and confident ardour, the same good +faith. You would have thrown yourselves into the breach as +whole-heartedly, with the same scorn of useless phrases and the same +stubborn conscientiousness. And the reason why I do not shrink from +singing in your presence the praises of what we have done is that +these praises also affect yourselves, who would not have hesitated to +do the selfsame things. + + +3 + +In short, we have both the same conception of honour; and a like idea +must needs bear like fruits. In your eyes as in ours, a formal +promise, a word once given is the most sacred thing that can pass +between man and man. Now far more than the valour of a man--because it +rises to much greater heights and extends to much greater +distances--the valour of a people depends upon the conception of its +honour which that people holds and, above all, upon the sacrifices +which it is capable of making for the sake of that honour. We may +differ upon all the other ideas that guide the actions of mankind, +notably upon the religious idea; but those who do not agree on this +one point are unworthy of the name of man. It represents the purest +flame, the ever more ardent focus of all human dignity and virtue. + +You have sacrificed yourselves wholly to this idea; and, in the name +of this idea, which is as vital and as powerful in your souls as in +ours, you came to our aid, as we knew that you would come, for we +counted on you as surely as you counted on us. You are ready to make +the same sacrifices; and already you are proudly supporting the +heaviest of sacrifices. Thus, in this stupendous struggle, we are +united by bonds even more fraternal than those which bind the other +Allies. Our union is more lofty and more generous, for it is based +wholly upon the noblest thoughts and feelings that can inspire the +heart. And this union, which is marked by a mutual confidence and +affection that grow hourly deeper and wider, is helping us both to go +even beyond our duty. + +For we have gone beyond it; and we are exceeding it daily. We have +done and are doing far more than we were bound to do. It was for us +Belgians to resist, loyally, vigorously, to the utmost of our +strength, as we had promised. But the most sensitive honour would have +allowed us to lay down our arms after the immense and heroic effort of +the first few days and to trust to the victor's clemency when he +recognized that we were beaten. Nothing compelled us to immolate +ourselves entirely, to surrender, in succession, as a burnt-offering +to our ideals, all that we possessed on earth and to continue the +struggle after we were crushed, even in the last torments of +starvation, which to-day holds three millions of us in its grip. +Nothing compelled us to this course, other than the increasingly lofty +ideal of duty held by those who began by putting it into practice and +are now living in its fulfilment. + +As for you English, you had to come to our assistance, that is to say, +to send us the troops which you had ready under arms; but nothing +compelled you either, after the first useless engagements, to devote +yourselves with unparalleled ardour and self-sacrifice, to hurl into +the mortal and stupendous battle the whole of your youth, the fairest +upon earth, and all your riches, the most prodigious in this world, +nor to conjure up from your soil, by a miracle which was thought +impossible, in fewer months than the years that would have seemed +needful, the most gallant, determined and tenacious armies that have +yet been marshalled in this war. Nothing compelled you, save the +spirit of emulation, the same mad love of duty, the same passion for +justice, the same idolatry of the given word which, that it may be +sure of doing all that it promised, performs far more than it would +have dared to promise. + + +4 + +Now, during the last few weeks, a new combatant has entered the lists, +one who occupies a place quite apart in the sacred hierarchy of duty +and honour and in the moral history of this war. I speak of Italy; and +I pay her the tribute of homage which is her due and which I well know +that you will render with me, for you of all nations are qualified to +do so. + +Italy had no treaty except with our enemies. Her first act of +justice, when confronted with an iniquitous aggression, was to discard +this treaty, which was about to draw her into a crime which she had +the courage to judge and condemn from the outset, while her former +allies were still in the full flush of a might that seemed unshakable. +After this verdict, which was worthy of the land where justice first +saw the light, she found herself free; she now owed no obligations to +any one. There was nothing left to compel her to rush into this +carnage, which she could contemplate calmly from the vantage of her +delightful cities; and she had only to wait till the twelfth hour to +gather its first fruits. There was no longer any compact, any written +bond, signed by the hands of kings or peoples, that could involve her +destiny. But now, at the spectacle, unforeseen and daily more +abominable and disconcerting, of the barbarian invasion, words +half-effaced and secret treaties written by unknown hands on the +souls and consciences of all men revealed themselves and slowly +gathered life and radiance. To some extent I was a witness of these +things; and I was able, so to speak, to follow with my eyes the +awakening and the irresistible promulgation of those great and +mysterious laws of justice, pity and love which are higher and more +imperishable than all those which we have engraved in marble or +bronze. With the increase of the crimes, the power of these laws +increased and extended. We may regard the intervention of Italy in +many ways. Like every human action and, above all, like every +political action, it is due to a thousand causes, many of which are +trifling. Among them we may see the legitimate hatred and the eternal +resentment felt towards an hereditary enemy. We may discover an +interested intention to take part, without too much risk, in a +victory already certain and in its previously allotted spoils. We may +see in it anything that we please: the resolves of men contain factors +of all kinds; but we must pity those who are able to consider none but +the meaner sides of the matter, for these are the only sides which +never count and which are always deceptive. To find the real and +lasting truth, we must learn to view the great masses and the great +feelings of mankind from above. It is in them and in their great and +simple movements that the will of the soul and of destiny is asserted, +for these two form the eternal substance of a people. And, in the +present case, the movement of the great masses and the great feelings +of the people took the form of an immense impulse of sympathy and +indignation, which gradually increased, penetrating farther and +farther into the popular strata and gathering volume as it +progressed, until it urged a whole nation to assume the burden of a +war which it knew to be crushing and merciless, a war which each of +those who called for it knew to be a war which he himself must wage, +with his own hands, with his own body, a war which would wrest him +from the pleasant ways of peace, from his labours and his comforts, +which would weigh terribly upon all those whom he loved, which would +expose him for weeks, perhaps for months, to incredible sufferings and +which meant almost certain death to a third or a half of those who +demanded the right to brave it. And all this, I repeat, occurred +without any material necessity, from no other motive than a fine sense +of honour and a magnificent surge of admiration and pity for a small +foreign nation that was being unjustly martyred. We cannot repeat it +too often: here, as in the case of the sacrifice which Belgium and +England offered to the ideal of honour, is a new and unprecedented +fact in history. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 4: Delivered in London, at the Queen's Hall, 7 July, 1915.] + + * * * * * + + + + +BELGIUM'S FLAG DAY + + + + +IX + +BELGIUM'S FLAG DAY + + +1 + +To-day our flag will quiver in every French hand as a symbol of love +and gratitude. This day should be a day of hope and glory for all +Belgium. + +Let us forget for a moment our terrible distress; let us forget our +plains and meadows, the fairest and most fertile in Europe, now +ravaged to such a degree that the utmost that one can say is powerless +to give any idea of a desolation which seems irremediable. Let us +forget--if to forget them be possible--the women, the children, the +old men, peaceable and innocent, who have been massacred in their +thousands, the tale of whom will amaze the world when once the grim +barrier is broken behind which so many secret horrors are being +committed. Let us forget those who are dying of hunger in our country, +a land without harvests and without homes, a land methodically taxed, +pillaged and crushed until it is drained of the last drop of its +life-blood. Let us forget those remnants of our people who are +scattered hither and thither, who have trodden the path of exile, who +are living on public charity, which, though it show itself full of +brotherhood and affection, is yet so oppressive to those supremely +industrious hands, which had never known the grievous burden of alms. +Let us forget even those last of our cities to be menaced, the +fairest, the proudest, the most beloved of our cities, which +constitute the very face of our country and which only a miracle could +now save. Let us forget, in a word, the greatest calamity and the most +crying injustice of history and think to-day only of our approaching +deliverance. It is not too early to hail it. It is already in all our +thoughts, as it is in all our hearts. It is already in the air which +we breathe, in all the eyes that smile at us, in all the voices that +welcome us, in all the hands outstretched to us, waving the laurels +which they hold; for what is bringing us deliverance is the wonder, +the admiration of the whole world! + + +2 + +To-morrow we shall go back to our homes. We shall not mourn though we +find them in ruins. They will rise again more beautiful than of old +from the ashes and the shards. We shall know days of heroic poverty; +but we have learnt that poverty is powerless to sadden souls upheld by +a great love and nourished by a noble ideal. We shall return with +heads erect, regenerated in a regenerated Europe, rejuvenated by our +magnificent misfortune, purified by victory and cleansed of the +littleness that obscured the virtues which slumbered within us and of +which we are not aware. We shall have lost all the goods that perish +but as readily come to live again. And in their place we shall have +acquired those riches which shall not again perish within our hearts. +Our eyes were closed to many things; now they have opened upon wider +horizons. Of old we dared not avert our gaze from our wealth, our +petty comforts, our little rooted habits. But now our eyes have been +wrested from the soil; now they have achieved the sight of heights +that were hitherto unnoticed. We did not know ourselves; we used not +to love one another sufficiently; but we have learnt to know ourselves +in the amazement of glory and to love one another in the grievous +ardour of the most stupendous sacrifice that any people has ever +accomplished. We were on the point of forgetting the heroic virtues, +the unfettered thoughts, the eternal ideas that lead humanity. To-day, +not only do we know that they exist: we have taught the world that +they are always triumphant, that nothing is lost while faith is left, +while honour is intact, while love continues, while the soul does not +surrender and that the most monstrous of powers will never prevail +against those ideal forces which are the happiness and the glory of +man and the sole reason for his existence. + + * * * * * + + + + +ON THE DEATH OF A LITTLE SOLDIER + + + + +X + +ON THE DEATH OF A LITTLE SOLDIER + + +1 + +When I speak of this little soldier who fell a few days ago, up there +in the Vosges, it is not that I may mourn him publicly. It behoves us +in these days to mourn our dead in secret. Personal sorrows no longer +count; and we must learn how to suppress them in the presence of that +greater sorrow which extends over all the world, the particular sorrow +of the mothers who are setting us an example of the most heroic +silence that human suffering has been taught to observe since +suffering first visited womankind. For the admirable silence of the +mothers is one of the great and striking lessons of this war. Amid +that tragic and sublime silence no regret dare make itself heard. + +But, though my grief remains dumb, my admiration can still raise its +voice; and in speaking of this young soldier, who had not reached +man's estate and who died as the bravest of men, I speak of all his +brothers-in-arms and hail thousands like him in his name, which name +becomes a great and glorious symbol; for at this time, when a +prodigious wave of unselfishness and courage, surging up from the very +depths of the human race, uplifts the men who are fighting and giving +their lives for its future, they all resemble one another in the same +perfection. + + +2 + +My friend Raymond Bon was a sergeant in the 27th battalion of the +Chasseurs Alpins. He left for the front in August, 1914, with the +other recruits of the 1915 class, which means that he was hardly +twenty years of age; and he won his stripes on the battlefield, after +being twice named in dispatches. The second time was on returning from +a murderous assault at Thann, in Upper Alsace, in which he had greatly +distinguished himself. I quote the exact words: + + "Corporal Bon is mentioned in the orders of the battalion + for his gallantry under fire and his indifference to danger. + When the leader of his section was killed, Bon took command, + rushed to the front and, shouting to his men to follow him, + gave proofs of the greatest initiative and courage. He was + the first in the enemy's trenches with his section." + +That day he was promoted to sergeant and complimented by the general +in front of his battalion in the following terms: + + "This is the second time, my friend, that I am told what + you have done; next time you shall be told what I have + done." + +To-day men tell of his death, but also of the undying glory which +death alone confers. + + "At Hartmannsviller," writes one of Bon's comrades, + "according to his captain's story, our friend's company was + held in reserve, waiting to support the attack delivered by + a regiment of infantry. The order came to support and + reinforce the attack. The company at once leapt from the + trenches, with the captain and Bon at its head. There was a + salvo of artillery; and the bursting of a great shell caught + Raymond almost full in the body, smashing his right leg and + his chest. The captain was hit in the right hand. + Notwithstanding his horrible wounds, Bon did not lose + consciousness; he was able to stammer out a few words and to + press the hand which the captain gave him. In less than two + minutes all was over." + +And the captain adds: + + "Always ready to sacrifice himself; a brave among the + brave." + +These are modest and yet glorious details: modest because they are so +very common, because they are constantly being repeated in their noble +monotony and springing up from every side, numberless as the essential +actions of our daily life; and glorious because before this war they +seemed so rare and almost legendary and incomprehensible. + + +3 + +Raymond Bon was a child of the south, of that Provence which, day +after day, is shedding torrents of its blood to wipe out slanders +which we can no longer remember without turning pale with anger and +indignation. He was born at Avignon, the old city of the Popes and the +cicadas, where men have louder accents and lighter hearts than +elsewhere. He was a little boxing-master, who earned a livelihood at +Nice for himself and his destitute parents by giving lessons in the +noble art of self-defence with the good, ever-ready weapons which +nature has bestowed upon us. He boasted no other education than that +which a lad picks up at the primary school; but, almost illiterate as +he was, he possessed all the refinement, the innate culture, the +unconscious delicacy and tact, the kindliness of speech and feeling +and the beautiful heart of that comely race whose foremost sons seem +to be purified and spiritualized from their first childish steps by +the most radiant sunshine in the world. One would say that they were +directly related to those exquisite ephebes of ancient Greece who +sprang into existence ready to understand all things and to +experience life's purest emotions before they themselves had lived. My +reason for insisting upon the point is that, in this respect above +all, he represented thousands and thousands of young men from that +wonderful region where all the best and most lovable qualities of +mankind lie hidden all around beneath the indifferent surface of +everyday existence, only awaiting a favourable occasion to blossom +into astonishing flowers of grace and generosity and heroism. + + +4 + +When I heard that he had gone to the front, I felt a melancholy +certainty that I should never set eyes on him again. He was of those +whose fate there is no mistaking. He was one of those predestined +heroes whose courage marks them out beforehand for death and laurels. +I but too well knew his eagerness, his unbounded sincerity and +single-mindedness and his great heart: that admirable heart devoid of +all caution or ulterior motive or calculation, that heart turned, at +all times and with all its might, purely towards honour and duty. He +was bound to be in the trenches and in the bayonet-charge the same man +that I had so often seen in the ring, taking risks from the start, +taking them wholesale, unremittingly, blindly and cheerfully and +always ready with his pleasant smile, like that of a shy child, at any +time to face whatever giant might have challenged him. + +I remember that one day in the year 1914, he was training Georges +Carpentier, who was to meet some negro heavy-weight or other. The +disproportion in the strength of the two men struck my friends and me +as rather alarming; and we took the champion of the world aside and +begged him not to hit too hard and to spare our little instructor as +much as he could. That good fellow Carpentier, who is full of +chivalrous gentleness, promised to do what we asked; but after the +first round he came back to us and said: + +"I can't let him off just as lightly as I should like. The little chap +is too plucky and too sensitive; and I have to hit out in earnest. +Besides, he overheard you and what he says is, 'Never mind what the +gentlemen say; they are much too considerate and are always afraid of +my getting smashed up. There's no fear of that. You go for me hard, +else we sha'n't be doing good work.'" + + +5 + +"Good work." That is evidently what he did down at the front and what +all of them there are doing. It is indeed fine work, the most glorious +that a man can perform, to die like that for a cause whose triumph he +will not behold, for benefits which he does not reap and which will +accrue solely to his fellow-men whom he will never see again. For, +apart from those benefits, like so many other men, like almost all the +others, he had nothing to gain and nothing to lose by this war. All +that he possessed in the world was the strength of his two arms; and +that strength finds a country everywhere. + +But we are no longer concerned with the personal and immediate +interests that guide nearly all the actions of everyday life. A +loftier ideal has visited men's minds and occupies them wholly; and +the least prepared, the humblest, the minds that seemed to understand +hardly anything of the existence that came before the tremendous +trial, now feel it and live it as thoroughly and with the same +infinite ampleness as do those minds which thought themselves alone +capable of grasping it, of considering it from above or contemplating +it from every side. Never did a sheer ideal sink so deeply into so +many hearts or abide there for so long without wavering or faltering. +And therefore, beyond a doubt, somewhere on high, in the heart of the +unknown powers that rule us, there is being piled up at this moment +the most wonderful treasure of immaterial forces that man has ever +possessed, one upon which he will draw until the end of time; for in +that superhuman treasure-house nothing is lost and we are still living +day by day on the virtues stored in it long centuries ago by the +heroes of Greece and Rome, by the saints and martyrs of the primitive +Church and by the flower of mediæval chivalry. + + * * * * * + + + + +THE HOUR OF DESTINY + + + + +XI + +THE HOUR OF DESTINY + + +1 + +We are already free to speak of this war as if it were ended and of +victory as if it were assured. In principle, in the region of moral +certainties, Germany has been beaten since the battle of the Marne; +and reality, which is always slower, because it goes burdened beneath +the weight of matter, must needs come obediently to join the ranks of +those certainties. The last agony may be prolonged for weeks and +months, for the animal is endowed with the stubborn and almost +inextinguishable vitality of the beasts of prey; but it is wounded to +the death; and we have only to wait patiently, weapon in hand, for the +final convulsions that announce the end. The historic event, the +greatest beyond doubt since man possessed a history, is therefore +accomplished; and, strange to say, it seems as though it had been +accomplished in spite of history, against its laws and contrary to its +wishes. It is rash, I know, to speak of such things; and it behoves us +to be very cautious in these speculations which pass the scope of +human understanding; but, when we consider what the annals of this +earth of ours have taught us, it seemed written in the book of the +world's destinies that Germany was bound to win. It was not only, as +we are too ready at the first glance to believe, the megalomania of an +autocrat drunk with vanity, the gross vanity of some brainless +buffoon; it was not the warlike impulses, the blind infatuation and +egoism of a feudal caste; it was not even the impatient and +deliberately fanned envy and covetousness of a too prolific race +close-cramped on a dreary and ungrateful soil: it was none of these +that let loose the hateful war. All these causes, adventitious or +fortuitous as they were, only settled the hour of the decision; but +the decision itself was taken and written, probably ages ago, in other +spheres which cannot be reached by the conscious will of man, spheres +in which dark and mighty laws hold sway over illimitable time and +space. The whole line, the whole huge curve of history showed to the +mind of whosoever tried to read its sacred and fearful hieroglyphics +that the day of a new, a formidable and inexorable event was at hand. + +The theories built up on this point in the last sixty years by the +German professors, notably by Giesbrecht, the historian of the Ottos +and the Hohenstaufens, and Treitschke, the historian of the +Hohenzollerns, do not necessarily carry conviction but are at least +impressive; and the work of these two writers, which we do not know +as well as we should, and of Treitschke in particular possessed in +Germany an influence that sank deep into every mind, far exceeding +that of Nietzsche, which we looked upon as preponderant. + +But let us ignore for the moment all that belongs to a remote past, +the study of which would call for more space than we have at our +disposal. Let us not question the empire of the Ottos, the +Hohenstaufens or the Hapsburgs, in which Germany, at least as a nation +and a race, played but a secondary part and was still unconscious of +her existence. Let us rather see what is happening nearer to us and, +so to speak, before our very eyes. + + +2 + +A hundred years ago, under Napoleon, France enjoyed her spell of +hegemony, which she was not able to prolong because this hegemony was +more the work of a prodigious but accidental genius than the fruit of +a real and intrinsic power. Next came the turn of England, who to-day +possesses the greatest empire that the world has seen since the days +of ancient Rome, that is to say, more than a fifth part of the +habitable globe. But this vast empire rests no more than did +Napoleon's upon an incontestible force, inasmuch as up to this day it +was defended only by an army less numerous and less well-equipped than +that of many a smaller nation, thus almost inevitably inviting war, as +Professor Cramb pointed out a year or two ago in his prophetic book, +_Germany and England_, which has only recently aroused the interest +which it deserves. + +It seemed, therefore, as if between these two Powers, which were more +illusory than real, pending the advent of Russia, whose hour had not +yet struck; in this gap in history, between a nation on the verge of +its decline, or at least seemingly incapable of defending itself, and +a nation that was still too young and incapable of attack, fate +offered a magnificent place to whoso cared to take it. This is what +Germany felt, at first instinctively, urged by all the ill-defined +forces that impel mankind, and subsequently, in these latter years, +with a consciousness that became ever clearer and more persistent. She +grasped the fact that her turn had come to reign over the earth, that +she must take her chance and seize the opportunity that comes but +once. She prepared to answer the call of fate and, supported by the +mysterious aid which it lends to those whom it summons, she did +answer, we must admit, in an astonishing and most formidable manner. + +She was within a hair's breadth of succeeding. A little less prolonged +and less gallant resistance on the part of Belgium, a suspicious +movement from Italy, a false step made upon the banks of the Marne; +and we can picture Paris falling; France overrun and fighting +heroically to her last gasp; Russia, not crushed, but weary of seeking +victory and making terms for good or ill with a conqueror impotent to +harm her; the neutral nations more or less reluctantly siding with the +strongest; England isolated, giving up her colonies to staunch the +wounds of her invaded isle; the fasces of justice broken asunder by a +separate peace here, a separate peace there, each equally humiliating; +and Germany, monstrous, ferocious, implacable, finally towering alone +over the ruins of Europe. + + +3 + +Now it seems that we have turned aside the inflexible decree. It seems +that we have averted the fate that was about to be accomplished. It +was bearing down upon us with the weight of the ages, with all the +weight of all the vague but irresistible aspirations of the past and, +perhaps, the future. Thanks to the greatest effort which mankind has +ever opposed to the unknown gods that rule it, we are entitled to +believe that the decree has broken down and that we have driven it +into the evil cave where never human force before had compelled it to +hide its defeat. + +I say, "It seems;" I say, "We are entitled to believe." The fact is +that the ordeal is not yet past. Even on the day when the war is ended +and when victory is in our hands, destiny will not yet be conquered. +It has happened--seldom, it is true, but still it has happened twice +or thrice--that a nation has compelled the course of fate to turn +aside or to fall back. The nation congratulated herself, even as we +believe that we have the right to do. But events were not slow in +proving that she had congratulated herself too soon. Fatality, that is +to say, the enormous mass of causes and effects of which we have no +understanding, was not overcome; it was only delayed, it awaited its +revenge and its day, or at least what we call its day, which may +extend over a hundred years and more where nations are concerned, for +fatality does not reckon in the manner of men, but after the fashion +of the great movements of nature. It is important at this time to know +whether we shall be able to escape that revenge and that day. If men +and nations were swayed only by reason, if, after being so often the +absolute masters of their happiness and their future, they had not so +often destroyed that which they had just achieved, then we might +say--and indeed ought to say--that our escape depends only upon +ourselves. In point of fact, three-quarters of the risk are run and +the fourth is in our power; we have only to keep it so. Almost all the +chances of the fight are on our side at last; and, when the war is +over, there will be nothing but our wisdom and our will confronting a +destiny which from that time onward will be powerless to take its +course, unless it first succeed in blinding and perverting them. + +In this hour all that lies hidden under that mysterious word will be +waiting on our decision, waiting to know if victory is with us or with +it. It is after we have won that we must really vanquish; it is in the +hour of peace that the actual war will begin against an invisible foe, +a hundred times as dangerous as the one of whom we have seen too much. +If at that hour we do not profit by all our advantages; if we do not +destroy, root and branch, the military power of an enemy who is in +secret alliance with the evil influences of the earth; if we do not +here and now, by an irrevocable compact, forearm ourselves against +our sense of pity and generosity, our weakness, our imprudence, our +future rivalries and discords; if we leave a single outlet to the +beast at bay; if, through our negligence, we give it a single hope, a +single opportunity of coming to the surface and taking breath, then +the vigilant fatality which has but one fixed idea will resume its +progress and pursue its way, dragging history with it and laughing +over its shoulder at man once more tricked and discomfited. Everything +that we have done and suffered, the ruins, the sacrifices, the +nameless tortures and the numberless dead, will have served no purpose +and will be lost beyond redemption. Everything will not have to be +done over again, for nothing is ever done over again and fortunate +opportunities do not occur twice; but everything except our woes and +all their consequences will be as though it had never been. + + +4 + +It will therefore be a matter of holding our own against the enemy +whom we do not see and mastering him until the turn or chance of the +accursed race is past. How long will that be? We cannot tell; but, in +the swift-moving history of to-day, it seems probable that the waiting +and the struggle will be much shorter than they would have been in +former times. Is it possible that fatality--by which I mean what +perhaps for a moment was the unacknowledged desire of the +planet--shall not regain the upper hand? At the stage which man has +reached, I hope and believe so. He had never conquered it before; but +also he had not yet risen to the height which he has now attained. +There is no reason why that which has never happened should not take +place one day; and everything seems to tell us that man is approaching +the day whereon, seizing the most glorious opportunity that has ever +presented itself since he acquired a consciousness, he will at last +learn that he is able, when he pleases, to control his whole fate in +this world. + + * * * * * + + + + +IN ITALY + + + + +XII + +IN ITALY + + +1 + +A few days before Italy formed her great resolve, the following lines +appeared in one of the leading Pangermanic organs of the peoples +beyond the Rhine, the _Kreuzzeitung_: + + "We have already observed that it will not do to be too + optimistic as to Italy's decision; in point of fact, the + situation is very serious. If none but moderate + considerations had ruled Italy's intentions, there is little + doubt as to which path she would choose; but we know the + height which the wave of Germanophobia has attained in that + country, a significant mark of the popular sentiment being + the declaration of the Italian Socialists upon the reasons + of their inability to oppose the war. An equal source of + danger is the fact that the government feels that it no + longer controls the current of public opinion." + +The whole drama of Italian intervention is summed up in these lines, +which explain it better than would the longest and most learned +commentaries. + +The Italian government, restrained by a politic wisdom and prudence, +excessive, perhaps, but very excusable, did not wish for war. To the +utmost limits of patience, until its dignity and its sense of security +could bear no more, it did all that could be done to spare its people +the greatest calamity that can befall a land. It held out until it was +literally submerged and carried away by the flood of Germanophobia of +which the passage which I have quoted speaks. I witnessed the rising +of this flood. When I arrived in Milan, at the end of November, 1914, +to speak a few sentences at a charity-fête organized for the benefit +of the Belgian refugees, the hatred of Germany was already storing +itself up in men's hearts, but had not as yet come to the surface. +Here and there it did break out, but it was still fearful, circumspect +and hesitating. One felt it brewing, seething in the depths of men's +souls, but it seemed as yet to be feeling its way, to be reckoning +itself up, to be painfully attaining self-consciousness. When I +returned to Italy in March, 1915, I was amazed to behold the +unhoped-for height to which the invading flood had so swiftly risen. +That pious hatred, that necessary hatred, which in this case is merely +a magnificent passion for justice and humanity, had swept over +everything. It had come out into the full sunlight; it thrilled and +quivered at the least appeal, proud and happy to assert itself, to +manifest itself with the beautiful tumultuous ostentation of the +South; and it was the "neutrals" that now hid themselves after the +manner of unspeakable insects. That species had all but disappeared, +annihilated by the storm that was gathering on every hand. The Germans +themselves had gone to earth, no one knew where; and from that moment +it was certain that war was imminent and inevitable. + +In the space of three months a stupendous work had been accomplished. +It is impossible for the moment to weigh and determine the part of +each of those who performed it. But we can even now say that in Italy, +which is governed preeminently by public opinion and which, more than +any other nation, has in its blood the traditions and the habits of +the forum and the ancient republics, it is above all the spoken word +that changes men's hearts and urges them to action. + +2 + +From this point of view, the admirable campaign of agitation and +propaganda undertaken by M. Jules Destrée, author of _En Italie_, was +of an importance and possessed consequences which are beyond +comparison with anything else accomplished and which are difficult to +realize by those who were not present at one or other of the meetings +at which, for more than six months, indefatigably, travelling from +town to town, from the smallest to the most populous, he uttered the +distressful complaint of martyred Belgium, unveiling the lies, the +felonies, the monstrosities and the acts of devastation perpetrated by +the barbarian horde and making heard, with sovran eloquence, the +august voice of outraged justice and of baffled right. + +I heard him more than once and was able to judge for myself of the +magical effect--the term is by no means too strong--which he produced +on the Italian crowd. It was a magnificent spectacle, which I shall +never forget. I then perceived for the first time in my life the +mysterious, incantatory, supernatural powers of great eloquence. + +He would come forward wearing a languid, dejected and overburdened +air. The crowd, like all crowds awaiting their master, sat thronged at +his feet, silently humming, undecided, unshaped, not yet knowing what +it wanted or intended. He would begin; his voice was low, leisurely, +almost hesitating; he seemed to be painfully searching for his ideas +and expressions, but in reality he was feeling for the sensitive and +magnetic points of the huge and unknown being whose soul he wished to +reach. At the outset it was evident that he did not know exactly what +he was going to say. He swept his words across the assembly as though +they had been antennæ. They came back to him charged with sympathy +and strength and precise information. Then his delivery became more +rapid, his body drew itself erect, his stature and his very size +increased. His voice grew fuller; it became tremendous, seductive or +sarcastic, overwhelming like a hurricane all the ideas of his +audience, beating against the walls of the largest buildings, flowing, +through the doors and windows, out into the surging streets, there to +kindle the ardour and hatred which already thrilled the hall. His +face--tawny, brutal, ravaged, furrowed with shade and slashed with +light, powerful and magnificent in its ugliness--became the very mask, +the visible symbol of the furious and generous passions of the crowd. +At moments such as this, he truly merited the name which I heard those +about me murmuring, the name which the Italians gave him in that kind +of helpless fear and delight which men feel in the presence of an +irresistible force: he was "the Terrible Orator." + +But all this power, which seemed so blindly released, was in reality +extremely circumspect, extremely subtle and marvellously disciplined. +The handling of those shy though excited crowds called for the utmost +prudence, as a certain French speaker, whom I will not name, but who +wished to make a like attempt, learnt to his cost. The Italian is +generous, courteous, hospitable, expansive and enthusiastic, but also +proud and susceptible. He does not readily allow another to dictate +his conduct, to reproach him with his shortcomings or to offer him +advice. He is conscious of his own worth; he knows that he is the +eldest son of our civilization and that no one has the right to +patronize him. It is necessary, therefore, beneath the appearance of +the most fiery and unbridled eloquence, to observe perfect +self-mastery, combined with infinite tact and discretion. It is often +essential to divine instantaneously the temper of the crowd, to bow +before the most varied and unexpected circumstances and to profit by +them. I remember, among others, a singularly prickly meeting at +Naples. The Neapolitans are hardly warlike people; but they none the +less felt on this occasion that they must not appear indifferent to +the generous movement which was thrilling the rest of Italy. At the +last moment, we were warned that we might speak of Belgium and her +misfortunes, but that any too pointed allusion to the war, any too +violent attack upon the Teutonic bandits would arouse protests which +might injure our cause. I, being no orator, had only my poor written +speech, which, as I could not alter it, became dangerous. It was +necessary to prepare the ground. Destrée mounted the platform and, in +a masterly improvisation, began by establishing a long, patient and +scholarly parallel between Flemish and Italian art, between the great +painters of Florence and Venice and those of Flanders and Brabant; and +thence, by imperceptible degrees, he shifted his ground to the present +distress in Belgium, to the atrocities and infamies committed by her +oppressors, to the whole story, to the whole series of injustices, to +the whole danger of this nameless war. He was applauded; the barriers +were broken down. Anything added to what he had said was superfluous; +but everything was permissible. + + +3 + +For the rest, it must be admitted that a wonderful impulse of pity and +admiration for Belgium sustained the orator and lent his every word a +range and a potency which it could not otherwise have possessed. This +unanimous and spontaneous sympathy assumed at times the most touching +and unexpected forms. All difficulties were smoothed away before us as +by magic; the sternest prohibitions were ingeniously evaded or +benevolently removed. From the towns which we were due to visit the +hotel-keepers telegraphed to us, begging as a favour permission to +give us lodging; and, when the time came to settle our account, it was +impossible to get them to accept the slightest remuneration; and the +whole staff, from the majestic porter to the humblest boot-boy, +heroically refused to be tipped. If we entered a restaurant and were +recognized, the customers would rise, take counsel together and order +a bottle of some famous wine; then one among them would come forward, +requesting, gracefully and respectfully, that we would do them the +honour of drinking with them to the deliverance of our martyred +motherland. At the memory of what that unhappy country had suffered +for the salvation of the world, a sort of discreet and affecting +fervour was visible in the looks of all; it may be said that nowhere +was the heroic sacrifice of Belgium more nobly and more affectionately +admired and understood; and it will be recognized one day, when time +has done its work, that, although other causes induced Italy to take +upon her shoulders the terrible burden of what was not an inevitable +war, the only causes that really, in the depths of her soul, liberated +her resolve were the admiration, the indignation and the heroic pity +inspired by the spectacle, incessantly renewed, of our unmerited +afflictions. You will not find in history a nobler sacrifice nor one +made for a nobler cause. + + * * * * * + + + + +ON REREADING THUCYDIDES + + + + +XIII + +ON REREADING THUCYDIDES + + +1 + +At moments above all when history is in the making, in these times +when great and as yet incomplete pages are being traced, pages by the +side of which all that had already been written will pale, it is a +good and salutary thing to turn to the past in search of instruction, +warning and encouragement. In this respect, the unwearying and +implacable war which Athens kept up against Sparta for twenty-seven +years, with the hegemony of Greece for a stake, presents more than one +analogy with that which we ourselves are waging and teaches lessons +that should make us reflect. The counsels which it gives us are all +the more precious, all the more striking or profound inasmuch as the +war is narrated to us by a man who remains, with Tacitus, despite the +striving of the centuries, the progress of life and all the +opportunities of doing better, the greatest historian that the earth +has ever known. Thucydides is in fact the supreme historian, at the +same time swift and detailed, scrupulously sifting his evidence but +giving free play to intuition, setting forth none but incontestable +facts, yet divining the most secret intentions and embracing at a +glance all the present and future political consequences of the events +which he relates. He is withal one of the most perfect writers, one of +the most admirable artists in the literature of mankind; and from this +point of view, in an entirely different and almost antagonistic world, +he has not an equal save Tacitus. But Tacitus is before everything a +wonderful tragic poet, a painter of foul abysses, of fire and blood, +who can lay bare the souls of monsters and their crimes, whereas +Thucydides is above all a great political moralist, a statesman +endowed with extraordinary perspicacity, a painter of the open air and +of a free state, who portrays the minds of those sane, ingenious, +subtle, generous and marvellously intelligent men who peopled ancient +Greece. The one piles on the gloom with a lavish hand, gathers dark +shadows which he pierces at each sentence with lightning flashes, but +remains sombre and oppressed on the very summits, whereas the other +condenses nothing but light, groups together judgments that are so +many radiant sheaves and remains luminous and breathes freely in the +very depths. The first is passionate, violent, fierce, indignant, +bitter, sincerely but pitilessly unjust and all made up of magnificent +animosities; the second is always even, always at the same high level, +which is that which the noblest endeavour of human reason can attain. +He has no passion but a passion for the public weal, for justice, +glory and intelligence. It is as though all his work were spread out +in the blue sky; and even his famous picture of the plague of Athens +seems covered with sunshine. + + +2 + +But there is no need to follow up this parallel, which is not my +object. I will not dwell any longer--though perhaps I may return to +them one day--upon the lessons which we might derive from that +Peloponnesian War, in which the position of Athens towards Lacedaemon +provides more than one point of comparison with that of France towards +Germany. True, we do not there see, as in our own case, civilized +nations fighting a morally barbarian people: it was a contest between +Greeks and Greeks, displaying however in the same physical race two +different and incompatible spirits. Athens stood for human life in +its happiest development, gracious, cheerful and peaceful. She took no +serious interest except in the happiness, the imponderous riches, the +innocent and perfect beauties, the sweet leisures, the glories and the +arts of peace. When she went to war, it was as though in play, with +the smile still on her face, looking upon it as a more violent +pleasure than the rest, or as a duty joyfully accepted. She bound +herself down to no discipline, she was never ready, she improvised +everything at the last moment, having, as Pericles said, "with habits +not of labour but of ease and courage not of art but of nature, the +double advantage of escaping the experience of hardship in +anticipation and of facing them in the hour of need as fearlessly as +those who are never free from them."[5] + +For Sparta, on the other hand, life was nothing but endless work, an +incessant strain, having no other objective than war. She was gloomy, +austere, strict, morose, almost ascetic, an enemy to everything that +excuses man's presence on this earth, a nation of spoilers, looters, +incendiaries and devastators, a nest of wasps beside a swarm of bees, +a perpetual menace and danger to everything around her, as hard upon +herself as upon others and boasting an ideal which may appear lofty, +if it can be man's ideal to be unhappy and the contented slave of +unrelenting discipline. On the other hand, she differed entirely from +those whom we are now fighting in that she was generally honest, loyal +and upright and showed a certain respect for the gods and their +temples, for treaties and for international law. It is none the less +true that, if she had from the beginning reigned alone or without +encountering a long resistance, Hellas would never have been the +Hellas that we know. She would have left in history but a precarious +trace of useless warlike virtues and of minor combats without glory; +and mankind would not have possessed that centre of light towards +which it turns to this day. + + +3 + +What was to be the issue of this war? Here begins the lesson which it +were well to study thoroughly. It would seem indeed as if, with the +first encounters in that conflict, as in our own, the inexplicable will +that governs nations was favourable to the less civilized; and in fact +Lacedaemon gained the upper hand, at least temporarily and sufficiently +to abuse her victory to such a degree that she soon lost its fruits. +But Athens held the evil will in check for seven-and-twenty years; for +twenty-seven summers and twenty-seven winters, to use Thucydides' +reckoning, she proved to us that it is possible, in defiance of +probability, to fight against what seems written in the book of heaven +and hell. Nay more, at a time when Sparta, whose sole industry, whose +sole training, whose only reason for existence and whose only ideal +was war, was hugging the thought of crushing in a few weeks, under the +weight of her formidable hoplites, a frivolous, careless and +ill-organized city, Athens, notwithstanding the treacherous blow which +fate dealt her by sending a plague that carried off a third of her +civil population and a quarter of her army, Athens for seventeen years +definitely held victory in her grasp. + +During this period, she more than once had Lacedaemon at her mercy and +did not begin to descend the stony path of ruin and defeat until after +the disastrous expedition to Sicily, in which, carried away by her +rhetoricians and bitten with inconceivable folly, she hurled all her +fleet, all her soldiers and all her wealth into a remote, +unprofitable, unknown and desperate adventure. She resisted the +decline of her fortunes for yet another ten years, heaping up her sins +against wisdom and simple common sense and with her own hands drawing +tighter the knot that was to strangle her, as though to show us that +destiny is for the most part but our own madness and that what we call +unavoidable fatality has its root only in mistakes that might easily +be avoided. + + +4 + +To point this moral was again not my real object. In these days when +we have so many sorrows to assuage and so many deaths to honour, I +wished merely to recall a page written over two thousand years ago, to +the glory of the Athenian heroes who fell for their country in the +first battles of that war. According to the custom of the Greeks, the +bones of the dead that had been burnt on the battlefield were +solemnly brought back to Athens at the end of the year; and the people +chose the greatest speaker in the city to deliver the funeral oration. +This honour fell to Pericles, son of Xanthippus, the Pericles of the +golden age of human beauty. After pronouncing a well-merited and +magnificent eulogium on the Athenian nation and institutions, he +concluded with the following words: + + "Indeed, if I have dwelt at some length upon the character + of our country, it has been to show that our stake in the + struggle is not the same as theirs who have no such blessing + to lose and also that the panegyric of the men over whom I + am now speaking might be by definite proofs established. + That panegyric is now in a great measure complete; for the + Athens that I have celebrated is only what the heroism of + these and their like have made her, men whose fame, unlike + that of most Hellenes, will be found to be only commensurate + with their deserts. And, if a test of worth be wanted, it is + to be found in their closing scene; and this not only in the + cases in which it set the final seal upon their merit, but + also in those in which it gave the first intimation of their + having any. For there is justice in the claim that + steadfastness in his country's battles should be as a cloak + to cover a man's other imperfections, since the good action + has blotted out the bad and his merit as a citizen more than + outweighed his demerits as an individual. But none of these + allowed either wealth with its prospect of future enjoyment + to unnerve his spirit, or poverty with its hope of a day of + freedom and riches to tempt him to shrink from danger. No, + holding that vengeance upon their enemies was more to be + desired than any personal blessings and reckoning this to be + the most glorious of hazards, they joyfully determined to + accept the risk, to make sure of their vengeance and to let + their wishes wait; and, while committing to hope the + uncertainty of final success, in the business before them + they thought fit to act boldly and trust in themselves. Thus + choosing to die resisting rather than to live submitting, + they fled only from dishonour, but met danger face to face + and, after one brief moment, while at the summit of their + fortune, escaped not from their fear but from their glory. + + "So died these men as became Athenians. You, their + survivors, must determine to have as unfaltering a + resolution in the field, though you may pray that it may + have a happier issue. And, not contented with ideas derived + only from words of the advantages which are bound up with + the defence of your country, though these would furnish a + valuable text to a speaker even before an audience so alive + to them as the present, you must yourselves realize the + power of Athens and feed your eyes upon her from day to day, + till love of her fills your hearts; and then, when all her + greatness shall break upon you, you must reflect that it was + by courage, sense of duty and a keen feeling of honour in + action that men were enabled to win all this and that no + personal failure in an enterprise could make them consent to + deprive their country of their valour, but they laid it at + her feet as the most glorious contribution that they could + offer. For by this offering of their lives made in common by + them all they each of them individually received that renown + which never grows old and, for a sepulchre, not so much that + in which their bones have been deposited, but that noblest + of shrines wherein their glory is laid up to be eternally + remembered upon every occasion on which deed or story shall + call for its commemoration. For heroes have the whole earth + for their tomb; and in lands far from their own, where the + column with its epitaph declares it, there is enshrined in + every breast a record unwritten with no tablet to preserve + it, except that of the heart. These take as your model and, + judging happiness to be the fruit of freedom and freedom of + valour, never decline the dangers of war. For it is not the + miserable that would most justly be unsparing of their + lives: these have nothing to hope for; it is rather they to + whom continued life may bring reverses as yet unknown and to + whom a fall, if it came, would be most tremendous in its + consequences. And surely, to a man of spirit, the + degradation of cowardice must be immeasurably more grievous + than the unfelt death which strikes him in the midst of his + strength and patriotism! + + "Comfort, therefore, not condolence, is what I have to offer + to the parents of the dead who may be here. Numberless are + the chances to which, as they know, the life of man is + subject; but fortunate indeed are they who draw for their + lot a death so glorious as that which has caused your + mourning and to whom life has been so exactly measured as to + terminate in the happiness in which it has been passed. + Still I know that this is a hard saying, especially when + those are in question of whom you will be constantly + reminded by seeing in the homes of others blessings of which + once you also boasted; for grief is felt not so much for the + want of what we have never known as for the loss of that to + which we have been long accustomed. Yet you who are still of + an age to beget children must bear up in the hope of having + others in their stead: not only will they help you to forget + those whom you have lost, but they will be to the state at + once a reinforcement and a security; for never can a fair or + just policy be expected of the citizen who does not, like + his fellows, bring to the decision the interests and + apprehensions of a father. While those of you who have + passed your prime must congratulate yourselves with the + thought that the best part of your life was fortunate and + that the brief span that remains will be cheered by the fame + of the departed. For it is only the love of honour that + never grows old; and honour it is, not gain, as some would + have it, that rejoices the heart of age and helplessness. + + "And, now that you have brought to a close your lamentations + for your relatives, you may depart." + +These words spoken twenty-three centuries ago ring in our hearts as +though they were uttered yesterday. They celebrate our dead better +than could any eloquence of ours, however poignant it might be. Let us +bow before their paramount beauty and before the great people that +could applaud and understand. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 5: This and the later passage from Pericles' funeral oration +I have quoted from the late Richard Crawley's admirable translation of +Thucydides' _Peloponnesian War_, now published in the _Temple +Classics_.--A. T. de M.] + + * * * * * + + + + +THE DEAD DO NOT DIE + + + + +XIV + +THE DEAD DO NOT DIE + + +1 + +When we behold the terrible loss of so many young lives, when we see +so many incarnations of physical and moral vigour, of intellect and of +glorious promise pitilessly cut off in their first flower, we are on +the verge of despair. Never before have the fairest energies and +aspirations of men been flung recklessly and incessantly into an abyss +whence comes no sound or answer. Never since it came into existence +has humanity squandered its treasure, its substance and its prospects +so lavishly. For more than twelve months, on every battlefield, where +the bravest, the truest, the most ardent and self-sacrificing are +necessarily the first to die and where the less courageous, the less +generous, the weak, the ailing, in a word the less desirable, alone +possess some chance of escaping the carnage, for over twelve months a +sort of monstrous inverse selection has been in operation, one which +seems to be deliberately seeking the downfall of the human race. And +we wonder uneasily what the state of the world will be after the great +trial and what will be left of it and what will be the future of this +stunted race, shorn of all the best and noblest part of it. + +The problem is certainly one of the darkest that have ever vexed the +minds of men. It contains a material truth before which we remain +defenceless; and, if we accept it as it stands, we can discover no +remedy for the evil that threatens us. But material and tangible +truths are never anything but a more or less salient angle of greater +and deeper-lying truths. And, on the other hand, mankind appears to be +such a necessary and indestructible force of nature that it has +always, hitherto, not only survived the most desperate ordeals, but +succeeded in benefiting by them and emerging greater and stronger than +before. + + +2 + +We know that peace is better than war; it were madness to compare the +two. We know that, if this cataclysm let loose by an act of +unutterable folly had not come upon the world, mankind would doubtless +have reached ere long a zenith of wonderful achievement whose +manifestations it is impossible to foreshadow. We know that, if a +third or a fourth part of the fabulous sums expended on extermination +and destruction had been devoted to works of peace, all the iniquities +that poison the air we breathe would have been triumphantly redressed +and that the social question, the one great question, that matter of +life and death which justice demands that posterity should face, +would have found its definite solution, once and for all, in a +happiness which now perhaps even our sons and grandsons will not +realize. We know that the disappearance of two or three million young +existences, cut down when they were on the point of bearing fruit, +will leave in history a void that will not be easily filled, even as +we know that among those dead were mighty intellects, treasures of +genius which will not come back again and which contained inventions +and discoveries that will now perhaps be lost to us for centuries. We +know that we shall never grasp the consequences of this thrusting back +of progress and of this unprecedented devastation. But, granting all +this, it is a good thing to recover our balance and stand upon our +feet. There is no irreparable loss. Everything is transformed, nothing +perishes and that which seems to be hurled into destruction is not +destroyed at all. Our moral world, even as our physical world, is a +vast but hermetically sealed sphere, whence naught can issue, whence +naught can fall, to be dissolved in space. All that exists, all that +comes into being upon this earth remains there and bears fruit; and +the most appalling wastage is but material or spiritual riches flung +away for an instant, to fall to the ground again in a new form. There +is no escape or leakage, no filtering through cracks, no missing the +mark, not even waste or neglect. All this heroism poured out on every +side does not leave our planet; and the reason why the courage of our +fighters seems so general and yet so extraordinary is that all the +might of the dead has passed into the survivors. All those forces of +wisdom, patience, honour and self-sacrifice which increase day by day +and which we ourselves, who are far from the field of danger, feel +rising within us without knowing whence they come are nothing but the +souls of the heroes gathered and absorbed by our own souls. + + +3 + +It is well at times to contemplate invisible things as though we saw +them with our eyes. This was the aim of all the great religions, when +they represented under forms appropriate to the civilization of their +day, the latent, deep, instinctive, general and essential truths which +are the guiding principles of mankind. All have felt and recognized +that loftiest of all truths, the communion of the living and the dead, +and have given it various names designating the same mysterious +verity: the Christians know it as revival of merit, the Buddhists as +reincarnation, or transmigration of souls, and the Japanese as +Shintoism, or ancestor-worship. The last are more fully convinced than +any other nation that the dead do not cease to live and that they +direct all our actions, are exalted by our virtues and become gods. + +Lafcadio Hearn, the writer who has most closely studied and understood +that wonderful ancestor-worship, says: + + "One of the surprises of our future will certainly be a + return to beliefs and ideas long ago abandoned upon the mere + assumption that they contained no truth--beliefs still + called barbarous, pagan, mediæval, by those who condemn them + out of traditional habit. Year after year the researches of + science afford us new proof that the savage, the barbarian, + the idolater, the monk, each and all have arrived, by + different paths, as near to some point of eternal truth as + any thinker of the nineteenth century. We are now learning + also, that the theories of the astrologers and of the + alchemists were but partially, not totally, wrong. We have + reason even to suppose that no dream of the invisible world + has ever been dreamed, that no hypothesis of the unseen has + ever been imagined--which future science will not prove to + have contained some germ of reality."[6] + +There are many things which might be added to these lines, notably all +that the most recent of our sciences, metapsychics, is engaged in +discovering with regard to the miraculous faculties of our +subconsciousness. + +But, to return more directly to what we were saying, was it not +observed that, after the great battles of the Napoleonic era, the +birth-rate increased in an extraordinary manner, as though the lives +suddenly cut short in their prime were not really dead and were eager +to be back again in our midst and complete their career? If we could +follow with our eyes all that is happening in the spiritual world that +rises above us on every side, we should no doubt see that it is the +same with the moral force that seems to be lost on the field of +slaughter. It knows where to go, it knows its goal, it does not +hesitate. All that our wonderful dead relinquish they bequeath to us; +and when they die for us, they leave us their lives not in any +strained metaphorical sense, but in a very real and direct way. Virtue +goes out of every man who falls while performing a deed of glory; and +that virtue drops down upon us; and nothing of him is lost and nothing +evaporates in the shock of a premature end. He gives us in one +solitary and mighty stroke what he would have given us in a long life +of duty and love. Death does not injure life; it is powerless against +it. Life's aggregate never changes. What death takes from those who +fall enters into those who are left standing. The number of lamps +grows less, but the flame rises higher. Death is in no wise the gainer +so long as there are living men. The more it exercises its ravages, +the more it increases the intensity of that which it cannot touch; the +more it pursues its phantom victories, the better does it prove to us +that man will end by conquering death. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 6: _Kokoro: Hints and Echoes of Japanese Life_, chapter +xiv., "Some thoughts about Ancestor-Worship."] + + * * * * * + + + + +IN MEMORIAM + + + + +XV + +IN MEMORIAM + + +1 + +Those who die for their country should not be numbered with the dead. +We must call them by another name. They have nothing in common with +those who end in their beds a life that is worn out, a life almost +always too long and often useless. Death, which every elsewhere is but +the object of fear and horror, bringing naught but nothingness and +despair, this death, on the field of battle, in the clash of glory, +becomes more gracious than birth and exhales a beauty greater than +that of love. No life will ever give what their youth is offering us, +that youth which gives in one moment the days and the years that lay +before it. There is no sacrifice to be compared with that which they +have made; for which reason there is no glory that can soar so high +as theirs, no gratitude that can surpass the gratitude which we owe +them. They have not only a right to the foremost place in our +memories: they have a right to all our memories and to everything that +we are, since we exist only through them. + + +2 + +And now it is in us that their life, so suddenly cut short, must +resume its course. Whatever be our faith and whatever the God whom it +adores, one thing is almost certain and, in spite of all appearances, +is daily becoming more certain: it is that death and life are +commingled; the dead and the living alike are but moments, hardly +dissimilar, of a single and infinite existence and members of one +immortal family. They are not beneath the earth, in the depths of +their tombs; they lie deep in our hearts, where all that they once +were will continue to live to to act; and they live in us even as we +die in them. They see us, they understand us more nearly than when +they were in our arms; let us then keep a watch upon ourselves, so +that they witness no actions and hear no words but words and actions +that shall be worthy of them. + + * * * * * + + + + +SUPERNATURAL COMMUNICATIONS IN WAR-TIME + + + + +XVI + +SUPERNATURAL COMMUNICATIONS IN WAR-TIME + + +1 + +In a volume entitled _The Unknown Guest_, published not long ago, +among other essays I devoted one in particular[7] to certain phenomena +of intuition, clairvoyance or clairaudience, vision at great distance +and even vision of the future. These phenomena were grouped together +under the somewhat unsuitable and none too well-constructed title of +"psychometry," which, to borrow Dr. Maxwell's excellent definition, is +"the faculty possessed by certain persons of placing themselves in +relation, either spontaneously or, for the most part, through the +intermediary of some object, with unknown and often very distant +things and people." + +The existence of this faculty is no longer seriously denied by any one +who has given some little attention to metapsychics; and it is easily +verified by those who will take the necessary trouble, for its +possessors, though few in number, are not inaccessible. It has been +the subject of many experiments and of a few treatises, among which I +will name one by M. Duchatel, _Enquête sur des cas de psychométrie_, +and Dr. Osty's recent book, _Lucidité et intuition_, which is the most +complete and searching work that we have had upon this question until +now. + +Psychometry is one of the most curious faculties of our +subconsciousness and doubtless contains the clue to many of those +manifestations which appear to proceed from another world. Let us see, +with the aid of a living example, how it is employed. + +One of the best mediums of this class is a lady to whom I referred in +_The Unknown Guest_ as Mme. M. Her visitor gives her an object of some +kind that has belonged to or been touched or handled by the person +about whom he proposes to question her. Mme. M. operates in a state of +trance; but there are other celebrated psychometers who retain all +their normal consciousness, so that the hypnotic or somnambulistic +state is not, generally speaking, by any means indispensable when we +wish to arouse this extraordinary clairvoyance. + +After placing the object, usually a letter, in the medium's hands, you +say to her: + +"I wish you to put yourself in communication with the writer of this +letter," or "the owner of this article," as the case may be. + +Forthwith the medium not only perceives the person in question, his +physical appearance, his character, his habits, his interests, his +state of health, but also, in a series of swift and changing visions +that follow one another like the pictures of a cinematograph, sees and +describes exactly that person's environment, the surrounding country, +the rooms in which he lives, the people who live with him and who wish +him well or ill, the mentality and the most secret and unexpected +intentions of all the various characters that figure in his existence. +If by means of your questions you direct her towards the past, she +traces the whole course of the subject's history. If you turn her +towards the future, she seems often to discover it as clearly as the +past. + +But here we must make certain reservations. We are entering upon +forbidden tracts; errors are almost the rule and proper supervision is +all but impossible. It is better therefore not to venture into those +dangerous regions. Pending fuller investigation of the question, we +may say that the foretelling of the future, when it claims to cover a +definite space of time, is nearly always illusory. There is scarcely +any accuracy of vision, except when the events concerned are very near +at hand, already developing or actually being consummated; and it then +becomes difficult to distinguish it from presentiments, which in their +turn are rarely true except where the immediate future is concerned. +To sum up, in the present state of our experience, we observe that +what the psychometers and clairvoyants foretell us possesses a certain +value and some chance of proving correct only in so far as they put +into words our own forebodings, forebodings which again may be quite +unknown to us and which they discover deep down in our subconsciousness. +They confine themselves--I speak of the genuine mediums--to bringing +to light and revealing to us our unconscious and personal intuition +of an event that is hanging over us. But, when they venture to predict +a general event, such as the result of a war, an epidemic, an +earthquake, which does not interest ourselves exclusively or which is +too remote to come within the somewhat limited scope of our intuition, +they almost invariably deceive themselves and us. + +It is very difficult to fathom the nature of this intuition. Does it +relate to events partly or wholly realized, but still in a latent +state and perceived before the knowledge of them reaches us through +the normal channels of the mind or brain? Does our ever-watchful +instinct of self-preservation notice causes or traces which escape our +ever-inattentive and slumbering reason? Are we to believe in a sort of +autosuggestion that induces us to realize things which we have been +foretold or of which we have had presentiments? This is not the place +to examine so complex a problem, which brings us into contact with +all the mysteries of subconsciousness and the preexistence of the +future. + +There remains another point to which it is well to draw attention in +order to avoid misunderstanding and disappointment. Experience shows +us that the medium perceives the person in question quite clearly, in +his present and usual state, but not necessarily in the exact +accidental state of the moment. She will tell you, for instance, that +she sees him ailing slightly, lying in a deck-chair in a garden of +such and such a kind, surrounded by certain flowers and petting a dog +of a certain size and breed. On enquiring, you will find that all +these details are strictly correct, with one exception, that at that +precise moment this person, who ordinarily spends his time in the +garden, was inside his house or calling on a neighbour. Mistakes in +time therefore are comparatively frequent and simultaneity between +action and vision comparatively rare. In short, the habitual often +masks the accidental action. This, I insist, is a point of which we +must not lose sight, lest we ask of psychometry more than it is +obviously able to give us. + + +2 + +Having said so much, is it open to us, amid all the mental anguish and +suffering which this terrible war has engendered, without profaning +the sorrow of our fellow-men and women, to give to those who are in +mortal fear as to the fate of some one whom they love the hope of +finding, among those extrahuman phenomena which have been unjustly and +falsely disparaged, a consoling gleam of light that shall not be a +mere mockery or delusion? I venture to declare--and I am doing so not +thoughtlessly, but after studying the problem with the conscientious +attention which it demands and after personally making a number of +experiments or causing them to be made under my supervision--I venture +to declare, without for a moment losing sight of the respect due to +grief, that we possess here, in these indisputable cases where no +normal mode of communication is possible, a strange but real and +serious source of information and comfort. I could mention a large +number of tests that have been made, so to speak, before my eyes by +absolutely trustworthy relatives or friends. + +As my space is limited, I will relate only one, which typifies and +summarizes all the others very fairly. A mother had three sons at the +front. She was hearing pretty regularly from the eldest and the +second; but for some weeks the youngest, who was in the Belgian +trenches, where the fighting was very fierce, had given no sign of +life. Wild with anxiety, she was already mourning him as dead when +her friends advised her to consult Mme. M. The medium consoled her +with the first words that she spoke and told her that she saw her son +wounded, but in no danger whatever, that he was in a sort of shed +fitted up as a hospital, that he was being very well looked after by +people who spoke a different language, that for the time being he was +unable to write, which was a great worry to him, but that she would +receive a letter from him in a few days. The mother did, in fact, +receive a card from this son a few days later, worded a little stiffly +and curtly and written in an unnatural hand, telling her that all was +well and that he was in good health. Greatly relieved, she dismissed +the matter from her mind, merely said to herself that of course the +medium, like all mediums, had been wrong and thought no more of it. +But two or three messages following on the first, all couched in +short, stilted phrases that seemed to be hiding something, ended by +alarming her so much that she was unable to bear the strain any longer +and entreated her son to tell her the whole truth, whatever it might +be. He then admitted that he had been wounded, though not seriously, +adding that he was in a sort of shed fitted up as a hospital, where he +was being capitally looked after by English doctors and nurses, in +short, just as the medium had seen him. + +I repeat, mediumistic experience can show other instances of this +kind. If it stood alone, it would be valueless, for it might well be +explained by mere coincidence. But it forms part of a very normal +series; and I could easily enumerate many others within my own +knowledge. This, however, would merely mean repeating, with +uninteresting variations, the essential features of the present case, +a proceeding for which there would be no excuse save in a technical +work. + +Is success then practically certain? Yes, rash and surprising though +the statement may seem, mistakes upon the whole are very rare, +provided that the medium be carefully chosen and that the object +serving as an intermediary have not passed through too many hands, for +it will contain and reveal as many distinct personalities as it has +undergone contacts. It will be necessary, therefore, first to +eliminate all these accessory personalities, so as to fix the medium's +attention solely on the subject of the consultation. On the other +hand, we must beware of calling for details which the nature of the +medium's vision does not allow her to give us. If asked, for instance, +about a soldier who is a prisoner in Germany, she will see the soldier +in question very plainly, will perceive his state of health and mind, +the manner in which he is treated, his companions, the fortress or +group of huts in which he is interned, the appearance of the camp, of +the town, of the surrounding district; but she will very seldom indeed +be able to mention the name of the camp, town or district. In fact, +she can describe only what she sees; and, unless the town or camp have +a board bearing its name, there will be nothing to enable her to +identify it with sufficient accuracy. Let us add, lastly, that, with +mediums in a state of trance, who are not conscious of what they are +saying, we are exposed to terrible shocks. If they see death, they +announce the fact bluntly, without suspecting that they are in the +presence of a horror-stricken mother, wife or sister, so much so that, +in the case of Mme. M. particularly, it has been found necessary to +take certain precautions to obviate any such shock. + + +3 + +Now what is the nature of this strange and incredible faculty? In the +book which I mentioned at the beginning of this article, I tried to +examine the different theories that suggested themselves. The +argument, unfortunately, is infinitely too long to be republished +here, even if I were to compress it ruthlessly. I will give merely a +brief summary of the conclusions, or rather of the attempted +conclusions, for the mystery, like most of the world's mysteries, is +probably unfathomable. After dismissing the spiritualistic theory, +which implies the intervention of the dead or of discarnate entities +and is not as ridiculous as the profane would think, but which nothing +hitherto has adequately confirmed, we may reasonably ask ourselves +first of all whether this faculty exists in us or in the medium. Does +it simply decipher, as is probably the case where the future is +concerned, the latent ideas, knowledge and certainties which we bear +within us, or does it alone, of its own initiative and independently +of us, perceive what it reveals to us? Experience seems to show that +we must adopt the latter hypothesis, for the vision appears just as +distinctly when the illuminating object is brought by a third person +who knows nothing and has never heard of the individual to whom the +object once belonged. It seems therefore almost certain that the +strange virtue is contained solely in the object itself, which is +somehow galvanized by a complementary virtue in the medium. This being +so, we must presume that the object, having absorbed like a sponge a +portion of the spirit of the person who touched it, remains in +constant communication with him, or, more probably, that it serves to +track out, among the prodigious throng of human beings, the one who +impregnated it with his fluid, even as the dogs employed by the +police--at least so we are told--when given an article of clothing to +smell, are able to distinguish, among innumerable cross-trails, that +of the man who used to wear the garment in question. It seems more and +more certain that, as cells of one vast organism, we are connected +with everything that exists by an infinitely intricate network of +waves, vibrations, influences, currents and fluids, all nameless, +numberless and unbroken. Nearly always, in nearly all men, everything +transmitted by these invisible threads falls into the depths of the +subconsciousness and passes unperceived, which is not the same as +saying that it remains inactive. But sometimes an exceptional +circumstance, such as, in the present case, the marvellous sensibility +of a first-rate medium, suddenly reveals to us the existence of the +infinite living network by the vibrations and the undeniable operation +of one of its threads. + +All this, I agree, sounds incredible, but really it is hardly any more +so than the wonders of radioactivity, of the Hertzian waves, of +photography, electricity or hypnotism, or of generation, which +condenses into a single particle all the physical, moral and +intellectual past and future of thousands of creatures. Our life would +be reduced to something very small indeed if we deliberately dismissed +from it all that our understanding is unable to embrace. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 7: Chap. ii.: "Psychometry."] + + * * * * * + + + + +EDITH CAVELL + + + + +XVII + +EDITH CAVELL[8] + + +1 + +To-day, in honouring the memory of Miss Edith Cavell, we honour not +only the heroine who fell in the midst of her labours of love and +piety, we honour also those, wherever they may be, who have +accomplished or will yet accomplish the same sacrifice and who are +ready, in like circumstances, to face a like death. + +We are told by Thucydides that the Athenians of the age of +Pericles--who, to the honour of humanity be it said, had nothing in +common with the Athenians of to-day--were accustomed, each winter +during their great war, to celebrate at the cost of the State the +obsequies of those who had perished in the recent campaign. The bones +of the dead, arranged according to their tribes, were exhibited under +a tent and honoured for three days. In the midst of this host of the +known dead stood an empty bed, covered with tapestry and dedicated to +"the Invisible," that is, to those whose bodies it had been impossible +to recover. Let us too, before all else, in the quiet of this hall, +where none but almost religious words may be heard, raise in our midst +such an altar, a sacred and mysterious altar, to the invisible +heroines of this war, that is to say, to all those who have died an +obscure death and have left no traces and also to those who are yet +living, whose sacrifices and sufferings will never be told. Here, with +the eyes of the spirit, let us gaze upon all the heroic deeds of which +we know; but let us reserve an honoured place for those, incomparably +more numerous and perhaps more beautiful, of which we as yet know +nothing and, above all, for those of which we shall never know, for +glory has its injustices even as death has its fatalities. + + +2 + +Yet it is hardly probable that among these sacrifices we shall discern +any more admirable than that of Miss Edith Cavell. I need not recall +the circumstances of her death, for they are well-known to everybody +and will never be forgotten. Destiny left nothing undone for the +purest glory to emerge from the deepest shadow. In the depths of that +shadow it concentrated all imaginable hatred, horror, villainy, +cowardice and infamy, so that all pity, all innocent courage and +mercy, all well-doing and all sweet charity might shine forth above +it, as though to show us how low men may sink and how high a woman can +rise, as though its express and visible intention had been to trace, +with a single gesture, amid all the sorrows and the rare beauties of +this war, an outstanding and incomparable example which should at the +same time be an immortal and consoling symbol. + + +3 + +And one would say that destiny had taken pains to make this symbol as +truthful and as general as possible. It did not select a dazzling and +warlike heroine, as it would have done in the days of old: a Judith, a +Lucretia, nor even a Joan of Arc. There was no need of resounding +words, of splendid raiment, of tragic attitudes and accessories, of an +imposing background. The beauty which we find so touching has grown +simpler; it makes less stir and wins closer to our heart. And this is +why destiny sought out in obscurity a little hospital nurse, one of +many thousands of others. The sight of her unpretentious portrait does +not tell one whether she was rich or poor, a humble member of the +middle classes or a great lady. She would pass unnoticed anywhere +until the hour of trial, when glory recognizes its elect; and it seems +as though goodness had almost eliminated the individual contours of +her face, so that it might the more closely resemble the pensive and +sad smiling faces of all the good women in the world. + +Beneath those features one might indeed have read the hidden devotion +and quiet heroism of all the women who do their duty, that is, of +those whom we see about us day by day, working, hoping, keeping vigil, +solacing and succouring others, wearing themselves out without +complaint, suffering in secret and mourning their dead in silence. + + +4 + +She passed like a flash of light which for one moment illumined that +vast and innumerable multitude, confirming our confidence and our +admiration. She has added a final beauty to the great revelations of +this war; for the war, which has taught us many things that will never +fade from our memory, has above all revealed us to ourselves. In the +first days of the terrible ordeal, we did not know for certain how men +and women would comport themselves. In vain did we interrogate the +past, hoping thereby to learn something of the future. There was no +past that would serve for a comparison. Our eyes were drawn back to +the present; and we closed them, full of uneasiness. In what condition +should we find ourselves facing duty, sacrifice, suffering and death, +after so many years of peace, well-being and pleasure, of heedlessness +and moral indifference? What had been the vast and invisible journey +of the human conscience and of those secret forces which are the +whole of man, during this long respite, when they had never been +called upon to confront fate? Were they asleep, were they weakened or +lost, would they respond to the call of destiny, or had they sunk so +deep that they would never recover the energy to ascend to the surface +of life? There was a moment of anguish and silence; and lo, suddenly, +in the midst of this anguish and silence, the most splendid response, +the most magnificent cry of resurrection, of righteousness, of heroism +and sacrifice that the earth has ever heard since it began to roll +along the paths of space and time! They were still there, the ideal +forces! They were mounting upward, on every side, from the depths of +all those swiftly-assembling souls, not merely intact but more than +ever radiant, more than ever pure, more numerous and mightier than +ever! To the amazement of all of us, who possessed them without +knowing it, they had increased in strength and stature while +apparently neglected and forgotten. + +To-day there is no longer any doubt. We may expect all things and hope +all things from the men and the women who have surmounted this long +and grievous trial. If the heroism displayed by man on the battlefield +has never been comparable with that which is being lavished at this +moment, we may also say of the women that their heroism is even more +beyond comparison. We knew that a certain number of men were capable +of giving their lives for their country, for their faith or for a +generous ideal; but we did not realize that all would wrestle with +death for endless months, in great unanimous masses; and above all we +did not imagine, or perhaps we had to some extent forgotten, since the +days of the great martyrs, that woman was ready with the same gift of +self, the same patience, the same sacrifices, the same greatness of +soul and was about--less perhaps in blood than in tears, for it is +always on her that sorrow ends by falling--to prove herself the rival +and the peer of man. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 8: Delivered in Paris, at the Trocadéro, 18 December, 1915.] + + * * * * * + + + + +THE LIFE OF THE DEAD + + + + +XVIII + +THE LIFE OF THE DEAD + + +1 + +The other day I went to see a woman whom I knew before the war--she +was happy then--and who had lost her only son in one of the battles in +the Argonne. She was a widow, almost a poor woman; and, now that this +son, her pride and her joy, was no more, she no longer had any reason +for living. I hesitated to knock at her door. Was I not about to +witness one of those hopeless griefs at whose feet all words fall to +the ground like shameful and insulting lies? Which of us to-day is not +familiar with these mournful interviews, this dismal duty? + +To my great astonishment, she offered me her hand with a kindly smile. +Her eyes, to which I hardly dared raise my own, were free of tears. + +"You have come to speak to me of him," she said, in a cheerful tone; +and it was as though her voice had grown younger. + +"Alas, yes! I had heard of your sorrow; and I have come...." + +"Yes, I too believed that my unhappiness was irreparable; but now I +know that he is not dead." + +"What! He is not dead? Do you mean that the news...? But I thought +that the body...." + +"Yes, his body is down there; and I have even a photograph of his +grave. Let me show it to you. See, that cross on the left, the fourth +cross: that is where they have laid him. One of his friends, who +buried him, sent me this card, with all the details. He did not suffer +any pain. There was not even a death-struggle. And he has told me so +himself. He is quite astonished that death should be so easy, so +slight a thing.... You do not understand? Yes, I see what it is: you +are just as I used to be, as all the others are. I do not explain the +matter to the others; what would be the use? They do not wish to +understand. But you, you will understand. He is more alive than he +ever was; he is free and happy. He does just as he likes. He tells me +that one cannot imagine what a release death is, what a weight it +removes from you, nor the joy which it brings. He comes to see me when +I call him. He loves especially to come in the evening; and we chat as +we used to do. He has not altered; he is just as he was on the day +when he went away, only younger, stronger, handsomer. We have never +been happier, or more united, or nearer to one another. He divines my +thoughts before I utter them. He knows everything; he sees everything; +but he cannot tell me everything he knows. He says that I must be +wanting to follow him and that I must wait for my hour. And, while I +wait, we are living in happiness greater than that which was ours +before the war, a happiness which nothing can ever trouble again...." + +Those about her pitied the poor woman; and, as she did not weep, as +she was gay and smiling, they believed her mad. + + +2 + +Was she as mad as they thought? At the present moment, the great +questions of the world beyond the grave are pressing upon us from +every side. It is probable that, since the world began, there have +never been so many dead as now. The empire of death was never so +mighty, so terrible; it is for us to defend and enlarge the empire of +life. In the presence of this mother, which are right or wrong, those +who are convinced that their dead are forever swept out of existence, +or those who are persuaded that their dead do not cease to live, who +believe that they see them and hear them? Do we know what it is that +dies in our dead, or even if anything dies? Whatever our religious +faith may be, there is at any rate one place where they cannot die. +That place is within ourselves; and, if this unhappy mother went +beyond the truth, she was yet nearer to it than those despairing ones +who nourish the mournful certainty that nothing survives of those whom +they loved. She felt too keenly what we do not feel keenly enough. She +remembered too much; and we do not know how to remember. Between the +two errors there is room for a great truth; and, if we have to choose, +hers is the error towards which we should lean. Let us learn to +acquire through reason that which a wise madness bestowed on her. Let +us learn from her to live with our dead and to live with them without +sadness and without terror. They do not ask for tears, but for a happy +and confident affection. Let us learn from her to resuscitate those +whom we regret. She called to hers, while we repulse ours; we are +afraid of them and are surprised that they lose heart and pale and +fade away and leave us forever. They need love as much as do the +living. They die, not at the moment when they sink into the grave, but +gradually as they sink into oblivion; and it is oblivion alone that +makes the separation irrevocable. We should not allow it to heap +itself above them. It would be enough to vouchsafe them each day a +single one of those thoughts which we bestow uncounted upon so many +useless objects: they would no longer think of leaving us; they would +remain around us and we should no longer understand what a tomb is; +for there is no tomb, however deep, whose stone may not be raised and +whose dust dispersed by a thought. + +There would be no difference between the living and the dead if we but +knew how to remember. There would be no more dead. The best of what +they were dwells with us after fate has taken them from us; all their +past is ours; and it is wider than the present, more certain than the +future. Material presence is not everything in this world; and we can +dispense with it and yet not despair. We do not mourn those who live +in lands which we shall never visit, because we know that it depends +on us whether we go to find them. Let it be the same with our dead. +Instead of believing that they have disappeared never to return, tell +yourselves that they are in a country to which you yourself will +assuredly go soon; a country not so very far away. And, while waiting +for the time when you will go there once and for all, you may visit +them in thought as easily as if they were still in a region inhabited +by the living. The memory of the dead is even more alive than that of +the living; it is as though they were assisting our memory, as though +they, on their side, were making a mysterious effort to join hands +with us on ours. One feels that they are far more powerful than the +absent who continue to breathe as we do. + + +3 + +Try then to recall those whom you have lost, before it is too late, +before they have gone too far; and you will see that they will come +much closer to your heart, that they will belong to you more truly, +that they are as real as when they were in the flesh. In putting off +this last, they have but discarded the moments in which they loved us +least or in which we did not love at all. Now they are pure; they are +clothed only in the fairest hours of life; they no longer possess +faults, littlenesses, oddities; they can no longer fall away, or +deceive themselves, or give us pain. They care for nothing now but to +smile upon us, to encompass us with love, to bring us a happiness +drawn without stint from a past which they live again beside us. + + * * * * * + + + + +THE WAR AND THE PROPHETS + + + + +XIX + +THE WAR AND THE PROPHETS + + +At the end of an essay occurring in _The Unknown Guest_ and entitled, +_The Knowledge of the Future_, in which I examined a certain number of +phenomena relating to the anticipatory perception of events, such as +presentiments, premonitions, precognitions, predictions, etc., I +concluded in nearly the following terms: + + "To sum up, if it is difficult for us to conceive that the + future preexists, perhaps it is just as difficult for us to + understand that it does not exist; moreover, many facts tend + to prove that it is as real and definite and has, both in + time and eternity, the same permanence and the same + vividness as the past. Now, from the moment that it + preexists, it is not surprising that we should be able to + know it; it is even astonishing, granted that it overhangs + us from every side, that we should not discover it oftener + and more easily." + +Above all is it astonishing and almost inconceivable that this +universal war, the most stupendous catastrophe that has overwhelmed +humanity since the origin of things, should not, while it was +approaching, bearing in its womb innumerable woes which were about to +affect almost every one of us, have thrown upon us more plainly, from +the recesses of those days in which it was making ready, its menacing +shadow. One would think that it ought to have overcast the whole +horizon of the future, even as it will overcast the whole horizon of +the past. A secret of such weight, suspended in time, ought surely to +have weighed upon all our lives; and presentiments or revelations +should have arisen on every hand. There was none of these. We lived +and moved without uneasiness beneath the disaster which, from year to +year, from day to day, from hour to hour, was descending upon the +world; and we perceived it only when it touched our heads. True, it +was more or less foreseen by our reason; but our reason hardly +believed in it; and besides I am not for the moment speaking of the +inductions of the understanding, which are always uncertain and which +are resigned beforehand to the capricious contradictions which they +are accustomed daily to receive from facts. + + +2 + +But I repeat, beside or above these inductions of our everyday logic, +in the less familiar domain of supernatural intuitions, of divination, +prediction or prophecy properly so-called, we find that there was +practically nothing to warn us of the vast peril. This does not mean +that there was any lack of predictions or prophecies collected after +the event; these number, it appears, no fewer than eighty-three; but +none of them, excepting those of Léon Sonrel and the Rector of Ars, +which we will examine in a moment, is worthy of serious discussion. I +shall therefore mention, by way of a reminder, only the most widely +known; and, first of all, the famous prophecy of Mayence or Strasburg, +which is supposed to have been discovered by a certain Jecker in an +ancient convent founded near Mayence by St. Hildegard, of which the +original text could not be found and of which no one until lately had +ever heard. Then there is another prophecy of Mayence or Fiensberg, +published in the _Neue Metaphysische Rundschau_ of Berlin in February, +1912, in which the end of the German Empire is announced for the year +1913. Next, we have various predictions uttered by Mme. de Thèbes, by +Dom Bosco, by the Blessed Andrew Bobola, by Korzenicki, the Polish +monk, by Tolstoy, by Brother Hermann and so on, which are even less +interesting; and lastly the prophecy of "Brother Johannes," published +by M. Joséphin Peladan in the _Figaro_ of 16 September, 1914, which +contains no evidence of genuineness and must therefore meanwhile be +regarded merely as an ingenious literary conceit. + + +3 + +All these, on examination, leave but a worthless residuum; but the +prophecies of the Rector of Ars and of Léon Sonrel are more curious +and worthy of a moment's attention. + +Father Jean-Baptiste Vianney, Rector of Ars, was, as everybody knows, +a very saintly priest, who appears to have been endowed with +extraordinary mediumistic faculties. The prophecy in question was +made public in 1862, three years after the miracle-worker's death, and +was confirmed by a letter which Mgr. Perriet addressed to the Very +Rev. Dom Gréa on the 24th of February, 1908. Moreover, it was printed, +as far back as 1872, in a collection entitled, _Voix prophétiques, ou +signes, apparitions et prédictions modernes_. It therefore has an +incontestable date. I pass over the part relating to the war of 1870, +which does not offer the same safeguards; but I give that which +concerns the present war, quoting from the 1872 text: + + "The enemies will not go altogether; they will return again + and destroy everything upon their passage; we shall not + resist them, but will allow them to advance; and after that + we shall cut off their provisions and make them suffer great + losses. They will retreat towards their country; we shall + follow them and there will be hardly any who return home. + Then we shall take back all that they took from us and much + more." + +As for the date of the event, it is stated definitely and rather +strikingly in these words: + +"They will want to canonize me, but there will not be time." + +Now the preliminaries to the canonization of Father Vianney were begun +in July, 1914, but abandoned because of the war. + +I now come to the Sonrel prediction. I will summarize it as briefly as +possible from the admirable article which M. de Vesme devoted to it in +the _Annales des sciences psychiques_.[9] + +On the 3rd of June, 1914--observe the date--Professor Charles Richet +handed M. de Vesme, from Dr. Amédée Tardieu, a manuscript of which +the following is the substance: on the 23rd or 24th of July, 1869, Dr. +Tardieu was strolling in the gardens of the Luxembourg with his friend +Léon Sonrel, a former pupil of the Higher Normal School and teacher of +natural philosophy at the Paris Observatory, when the latter had a +kind of vision in the course of which he predicted various precise and +actual episodes of the war of 1870, such as the collection on behalf +of the wounded at the moment of departure and the amount of the sum +collected in the soldiers' képis; incidents of the journey to the +frontier; the battle of Sedan, the rout of the French, the civil war, +the siege of Paris, his own death, the birth of a posthumous child, +the doctor's political career and so on: predictions all of which were +verified, as is attested by numerous witnesses who are worthy of the +fullest credence. But I will pass over this part of the story and +consider only that portion which refers to the present war: + + "I have been waiting for two years," to quote the text of + Dr. Tardieu's manuscript of the 3rd of June, "for the sequel + of the prediction which you are about to read. I omit + everything that concerns my friend Léon's family and my + private affairs. Yet there is in my life at this moment a + personal matter, which, as always happens, agrees too + closely with general occurrences for me to doubt what + follows: + + "'O my God! My country is lost: France is dead!... What a + disaster!... Ah, see, she is saved! She extends to the + Rhine! O France, O my beloved country, you are triumphant; + you are the queen of nations!... Your genius shines forth + over the world.... All the earth wonders at you....'" + +These are the words contained in the document written at the Mont-Doré +on the 3rd and handed to M. de Vesme on the 13th of June 1914, at a +moment when no one was thinking of the terrible war which to-day is +ravaging half the world. + +When questioned, after the declaration of war, by M. de Vesme on the +subject of the prophetic phrase, "I have been waiting for two years +for the sequel of the prediction which you are about to read," Dr. +Tardieu replied, on the 12th of August: + +"I have been waiting for two years; and I will tell you why. My friend +Léon did not name the year, but the more general events are described +simultaneously with the events of my own life. Now the events which +concern me privately and which were doubtful two years ago became +certain in April or May last. My friends know that since May last I +have been announcing war as due before September, basing my prediction +on coincidences with events in my private life of which I do not +speak." + + +4 + +These, up to the present, are the only prophecies known to us that +deserve any particular attention. The prediction in both is timid and +laconic; but, in those regions where the least gleam of light assumes +extraordinary importance, it is not to be neglected. I admit, for the +rest, that there has so far been no time to carry out a serious +enquiry on this point, but I should be greatly surprised if any such +enquiry gave positive results and if it did not allowed us to state +that the gigantic event, as a whole, as a general event, was neither +foreseen nor divined. On the other hand, we shall probably learn, when +the enquiry is completed, that hundreds of deaths, accidents, wounds +and cases of individual ruin and misfortune, included in the great +disaster, were predicted by clairvoyants, by mediums, by dreams and by +every other manner of premonition with a definiteness sufficient to +eliminate any kind of doubt. I have said elsewhere what I think of +individual predictions of this kind, which seem to be no more than the +reading of the presentiments which we carry within us, presentiments +which themselves, in the majority of cases, are but the perception, by +the as yet imperfectly known senses of our subconsciousness, of +events, in course of formation or in process of realization, which +escape the attention of our understanding. However, it would still +remain to be explained how a wholly accidental death or wound could be +perceived by these subliminal senses as an event in course of +formation. In any case, it would once more be confirmed, after this +great test, that the knowledge of the future, so soon as it ceases to +refer to a strictly personal fact and one, moreover, not at all +remote, is always illusory, or rather impossible. + +Apart then from these strictly personal cases, which for the moment we +will agree to set aside, it appears more than ever certain that there +is no communication between ourselves and the vast store of events +which have not yet occurred and which nevertheless seem already to +exist at some place where they await the hour to advance upon us, or +rather the moment when we shall pass before them. As for the +exceptional and precarious infiltrations which belong not merely to +the present that is still unknown, veiled or disguised, but really to +the future, apart from the two which we have just examined, which are +inconclusive, I for my part know of but four or five that appear to be +rigorously verified; and these I have discussed in the essay already +mentioned. For that matter, they have no bearing upon the present war. +They are, when all is said, so exceptional that they do not prove +much; at the most, they seem to confirm the idea that a store exists +filled with future events as real, as distinct and as immutable as +those of the past; and they allow us to hope that there are paths +leading thither which as yet we do not know, but which it will not be +for ever impossible to discover. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 9: August, September and October, 1915.] + + * * * * * + + + + +THE WILL OF EARTH + + + + +XX + +THE WILL OF EARTH + + +1 + +To-day's conflict is but a revival of that which has not ceased to +drench the west of Europe in blood since the historical birth of the +continent. The two chief episodes in the conflict, as we all know, are +the invasion of Roman Gaul, including the north of Italy, by the +Franks and the successive conquests of England by the Anglo-Saxons and +the Normans. Without delaying to consider questions of race, which are +complex, uncertain and always open to discussion, we may, regarding +the matter from another aspect, perceive in the persistency and the +bitterness of this conflict the clash of two wills, of which one or +the other succumbs for a moment, only to rise up again with increased +energy and obstinacy. On the one hand is the will of earth or nature, +which, in the human species as in all others, openly favours brute or +physical force; and on the other hand is the will of humanity, or at +least of a portion of humanity, which seeks to establish the empire of +other more subtle and less animal forces. It is incontestable that +hitherto the former has always won the day. But it is equally +incontestable that its victory has always been only apparent and of +brief duration. It has regularly suffered defeat in its very triumph. +Gaul, invaded and overrun, presently absorbs her victor, even as +England little by little transforms her conquerors. On the morrow of +victory, the instruments of the will of earth turn upon her and arm +the hand of the vanquished. It is probable that the same phenomenon +would recur once more to-day, were events to follow the course +prescribed by destiny. Germany, after crushing and enslaving the +greater part of Europe, after driving her back and burdening her with +innumerable woes, would end by turning against the will which she +represents; and that will, which until to-day had always found in this +race a docile tool and its favourite accomplices, would be forced to +seek these elsewhere, a task less easy than of old. + + +2 + +But now, to the amazement of all those who will one day consider them +in cold blood, events are suddenly ascending the irresistible current +and, for the first time since we have been in a position to observe +it, the adverse will is encountering an unexpected and insurmountable +resistance. If this resistance, as we can now no longer doubt, +maintains itself victoriously to the end, there will never perhaps +have been such a sudden change in the history of mankind; for man +will have gained, over the will of earth or nature or fatality, a +triumph infinitely more significant, more heavily fraught with +consequences and perhaps more decisive than all those which, in other +provinces, appear to have crowned his efforts more brilliantly. + +Let us not then be surprised that this resistance should be +stupendous, or that it should be prolonged beyond anything that our +experience of wars has taught us to expect. It was our prompt and easy +defeat that was written in the annals of destiny. We had against us +all the force accumulated since the birth of Europe. We have to set +history revolving in the reverse direction. We are on the point of +succeeding; and, if it be true that intelligent beings watch us from +the vantage-point of other worlds, they will assuredly witness the +most curious spectacle that our planet has offered them since they +discovered it amid the dust of stars that glitters in space around +it. They must be telling themselves in amazement that the ancient and +fundamental laws of earth are suddenly being transgressed. + + +3 + +Suddenly? That is going too far. This transgression of a lower law, +which was no longer of the stature of mankind, had been preparing for +a very long time; but it was within an ace of being hideously +punished. It succeeded only by the aid of a part of those who formerly +swelled the great wave which they are to-day resisting by our side, as +though something in the history of the world or the plans of destiny +had altered, or rather as though we ourselves had at last succeeded in +altering that something and in modifying laws to which until this day +we were wholly subject. + +But it must not be thought that the conflict will end with the +victory. The deep-seated forces of earth will not be at once disarmed; +for a long time to come the invisible war will be waged under the +reign of peace. If we are not careful, victory may even be more +disastrous to us than defeat. For defeat, indeed, like previous +defeats, would have been merely a victory postponed. It would have +absorbed, exhausted, dispersed the enemy, by scattering him about the +world, whereas our victory will bring upon us a twofold peril. It will +leave the enemy in a state of savage isolation in which, thrown back +upon himself, cramped, purified by misfortune and poverty, he will +secretly reinforce his formidable virtues, while we, for our part, no +longer held in check by his unbearable but salutary menace, will give +rein to failings and vices which sooner or later will place us at his +mercy. Before thinking of peace, then, we must make sure of the future +and render it powerless to injure us. We cannot take too many +precautions, for we are setting ourselves against the manifest desire +of the power that bears us. + +This is why our efforts are difficult and worthy of praise. We are +setting ourselves--we cannot too often repeat it--against the will of +earth. Our enemies are urged forward by a force that drives us back. +They are marching with nature, whereas we are striving against the +great current that sweeps the globe. The earth has an idea, which is +no longer ours. She remains convinced that man is an animal in all +things like other animals. She has not yet observed that he is +withdrawing himself from the herd. She does not yet know that he has +climbed her highest mountain-peaks. She has not yet heard tell of +justice, pity, loyalty and honour; she does not realize what they are, +or confounds them with weakness, clumsiness, fear and stupidity. She +has stopped short at the original certitudes which were indispensable +to the beginnings of life. She is lagging behind us; and the interval +that divides us is rapidly increasing. She thinks less quickly; she +has not yet had time to understand us. Moreover, she does not reckon +as we do; and for her the centuries are less than our years. She is +slow because she is almost eternal, while we are prompt because we +have not many hours before us. It may be that one day her thought will +overtake ours; in the meantime, we have to vindicate our advance and +to prove to ourselves, as we are beginning to do, that it is lawful to +be in the right as against her, that our advance is not fatal and that +it is possible to maintain it. + + +4 + +For it is becoming difficult to argue that earth or nature is always +right and that those who do not blindly follow earth's impulse are +necessarily doomed to perish. We have learnt to observe her more +attentively and we have won the right to judge her. We have discovered +that, far from being infallible, she is continually making mistakes. +She gropes and hesitates. She does not know precisely what she wants. +She begins by making stupendous blunders. She first peoples the world +with uncouth and incoherent monsters, not one of which is capable of +living; these all disappear. Gradually she acquires, at the cost of +the life which she creates, an experience that is the cruel fruit of +the immeasurable suffering which she unfeelingly inflicts. At last she +grows wiser, curbs and amends herself, corrects herself, returns upon +her footsteps, repairs her errors, expending her best energies and her +highest intelligence upon the correction. It is incontestable that she +is improving her methods, that she is more skillful, more prudent, +less extravagant than at the outset. And yet the fact remains that, in +every department of life, in every organism, down to our own bodies, +there is a survival of bad workmanship, of twofold functions, of +oversights, changes of intention, absurdities, useless complications +and meaningless waste. We therefore have no reason to believe that our +enemies are in the right because earth is with them. Earth does not +possess the truth any more than we do. She seeks it, even as we do, +and discovers it no more readily. She seems to know no more than we +whither she is going nor whither she is being led by that which leads +all things. We must not listen to her without enquiry; and we need not +distress ourselves or despair because we are not of her opinion. We +are not dealing with an infallible and unchangeable wisdom, to oppose +which in our thoughts would be madness. We are actually proving to +her that it is she who is in the wrong; that man's reason for +existence is loftier than that which she provisionally assigned to +him; that he is already outstripping all that she foresaw; and that +she does wrong to delay his advance. She is, for that matter, full of +goodwill, is able on occasion to recognize her mistakes and to obviate +their disastrous results and by no means takes refuge in majestic and +inflexible self-conceit. If we are able to persevere, we shall be able +to convince her. This will take much time, for, I repeat, she is slow, +though in no wise obstinate. It will take much time because a very +long future is in question, a very great change and the most important +victory that man has ever hoped to win. + + * * * * * + + + + +FOR POLAND + + + + +XXI + +FOR POLAND + + +1 + +The Allies have entered into a solemn compact that none of them will +conclude a separate peace. They undertook recently, by an equally +irrevocable convention, that they would not lay down their arms until +Belgium was delivered. These two acts, one of prudence, the other of +elementary justice, appear at first sight superfluous. Yet they were +necessary. It is well that nations, even more than men, because their +conscience is less stable, should secure themselves against the +mistakes and weakness and ingratitude which too often accompany strife +and which even more often follow victory. To-morrow they will do for +Servia what they have done in the case of Belgium; but there is a +third victim, of whom too little is said, who has the same rights as +the other two; and to forget her would forever attaint the honour and +the justice of those who took up arms only in the name of justice and +honour. + + +2 + +I need not recall the fate of Poland. It is in certain respects more +tragic and more pitiful than that of Belgium or of Servia. She had not +even the opportunity to choose between dishonour and annihilation. + +Three successive acts of injustice, which were, until to-day, the most +shameful recorded by history, deprived her of the glory of that heroic +choice which she would have made in the same spirit, for she had +already thrice made it in the past, a choice which this day sustains +and consoles her two martyred sisters in their profoundest +tribulations. It would be too unjust if an ancient injustice, which +even yet weighs upon the memory and the conscience of Europe, should +become the sole reason of yet a last iniquity, which this time would +be inexpiable. + + +3 + +True, the Grand-duke Nicolas made noble and generous promises to +Poland; and these promises were repeated at the opening of the Duma. +This is good and shows the irresistible force of the awakening +conscience of a great empire; but it is not enough. Such promises +involve only those who make them; they do not bind a nation. We will +not insult Russia by doubting her intentions; but among all the +certainties which history teaches us there is one that has been +acquired once and for all; and this is that in politics and +international morality intentions count for nothing and that a +promise, made by no matter what nations, will be kept only if those +who make it also render it impossible for themselves to do otherwise +than keep it. For the rest, the question at present is not one of +intentions, nor confidence, nor pity, nor even of interest. Others +have spoken and will speak again, better than I could, of Poland's +terrible distress and of the danger, which is far more formidable and +far more imminent than is generally believed, of those German +intrigues which are seeking to seduce from us and, despite themselves, +to turn against us twenty millions of desperate people and nearly a +million soldiers, who will die, perhaps, rather than join our enemies, +but who, in any case, cannot fight in our ranks as they would have +done had the word for which they are waiting in their anguish been +spoken before it was too late. + + +4 + +But, however grave the peril, we are, I repeat, far less concerned +with this at the present moment than with the question of justice. +Poland has an absolute and sacred right to be treated even as the +other two victims of this war of justice. She is their equal, she is +of the same rank and on the same level. She has suffered what they +have suffered, for the same cause, in the same spirit and with the +same heroism; and if she has not done what the two others have done it +is because only the ingratitude of all those whom she had more than +once saved, together with one of the greatest crimes in history, +prevented her from doing so. + +It is time for the Europe of to-day to repair the iniquity committed +by the Europe of other days. We are nothing, we are no better than our +enemies, we have no title to deliver millions of innocent men to +death, unless we stand for justice. The idea of justice alone must +rule all that we undertake, for we are united, we have risen and we +exist only in its name. At this moment we occupy all the pinnacles of +this justice, to which we have brought such an impulse, such +sacrifices and such heroism as we shall perhaps never behold again. We +shall never rise higher; let us then form at this present time +resolutions which will forbid us to descend; and Europe would descend, +to a depth greater than was hers in the unpardonable hour of the +partition of Poland, did she not before all else repair the immense +fault which she committed when she had not yet discovered her +conscience and did not yet know what she knows to-day. + + * * * * * + + + + +THE MIGHT OF THE DEAD + + + + +XXII + +THE MIGHT OF THE DEAD + + +1 + +In _A Beleaguered City_, a little book which, in its curious way, is a +masterpiece, Mrs. Oliphant shows us the dead of a provincial town +suddenly waxing indignant over the conduct and the morals of those +inhabiting the town which they had founded. They rise up in rebellion, +invest the houses, the streets, the market-places and, by the pressure +of their innumerable multitude, all-powerful though invisible, repulse +the living, thrust them out of doors and, setting a strict watch, +permit them to return to their roof-trees only after a treaty of peace +and penitence has purified their hearts, atoned for their offences +and ensured a more worthy future. + +There is undoubtedly a great truth beneath this fiction, which appears +too far-fetched because we perceive only material and ephemeral +realities. The dead live and move in our midst far more really and +effectually than the most venturesome imagination could depict. It is +very doubtful whether they remain in their graves. It even seems +increasingly certain that they never allowed themselves to be confined +there. Under the tombstones where we believe them to lie imprisoned +there are only a few ashes, which are no longer theirs, which they +have abandoned without regret and which, in all probability, they no +longer deign to remember. All that was themselves continues to have +its being in our midst. How and under what aspect? After all these +thousands, perhaps millions, of years, we do not yet know; and no +religion has been able to tell us with satisfying certainty, though +all have striven to do so; but we may, by means of certain tokens, +hope to learn. + +Without further considering a mighty but obscure truth, which it is +for the moment impossible to state precisely or to render palpable, +let us concern ourselves with one which cannot be disputed. As I have +said elsewhere, whatever our religious faith may be, there is in any +case one place where our dead cannot perish, where they continue to +exist as really as when they were in the flesh and often more +actively; and this living abiding-place, this consecrated spot, which +for those whom we have lost becomes heaven or hell according as we +draw close to or depart from their thoughts and their desires, is in +us. + +And their thoughts and their desires are always higher than our own. +It is, therefore, by uplifting ourselves that we approach them. It is +we who must take the first steps, for they can no longer descend, +whereas it is always possible for us to rise; for the dead, whatever +they have been in life, become better than the best of us. The least +worthy of them, in shedding the body, have shed its vices, its +littlenesses, its weaknesses, which soon pass from our memory as well; +and the spirit alone remains, which is pure in every man and able to +desire only what is good. There are no wicked dead because there are +no wicked souls. This is why, as we purify ourselves, we restore life +to those who were no more and transform our memory, which they +inhabit, into heaven. + + +2 + +And what was always true of all the dead is far more true to-day when +only the best are chosen for the tomb. In the region which we believe +to be under the earth, which we call the kingdom of the shades and +which in reality is the ethereal region and the kingdom of light, +there are at this moment perturbations no less profound than those +which we are experiencing on the surface of our earth. The young dead +are invading it from every side; and since the beginning of this world +they have never been so numerous, so full of energy and zeal. Whereas +in the customary sequence of the years the dwelling-place of those who +leave us receives only weary and exhausted lives, there is not one in +this incomparable host who, to borrow Pericles' expression, "has not +departed from life at the height of glory." Not one of them but has +gone up, not down, to his death clad in the greatest sacrifice that +man can make for an idea which cannot die. All that we have hitherto +believed, all that we have striven to attain beyond ourselves, all +that has lifted us to the level at which we stand, all that has +overcome the evil days and the evil instincts of human nature: all +this could have been no more than lies and illusions if such men as +these, such a mass of merit and of glory, were really annihilated, had +really forever disappeared, were forever useless and voiceless, +forever without influence in a world to which they have given life. + + +3 + +It is hardly possible that this could be so as regards the external +survival of the dead; but it is absolutely certain that it is not so +as regards their survival in ourselves. Here nothing is lost and no +one perishes. Our memories are to-day peopled by a multitude of heroes +struck down in the flower of their youth and very different from the +pale and languid cohort of the past, composed almost wholly of the +sick and the aged, who already had ceased to exist before leaving the +earth. We must tell ourselves that now, in each of our homes, both in +our cities and in the country-side, both in the palace and in the +meanest hovel, there lives and reigns a young dead man in the glory of +his strength. He fills the poorest, darkest dwelling with a splendour +of which it had never ventured to dream. His constant presence, +imperious and inevitable, diffuses through it and maintains a religion +and ideas which it had never known there before, hallows everything +around it, forces the eyes to look higher and the spirit to refrain +from descending, purifies the air that is breathed and the speech that +is held and the thoughts that are mustered there and, little by +little, ennobles and uplifts a whole people on a scale of unexampled +vastness. + + +4 + +Such dead as these have a power as profound, as fruitful as life and +less precarious. It is terrible that this experience should have been +made, for it is the most pitiless and the first in such enormous +masses that mankind has ever undergone; but, now that the ordeal is +almost over, we shall soon derive from it the most unexpected fruits. +It will not be long before we see the differences increase and the +destinies diverge between the nations which have acquired all these +dead and all this glory and those which were deprived of them; and we +shall perceive with amazement that those nations which have lost the +most are those which have kept their riches and their men. There are +losses which are inestimable gains; and there are gains whereby the +future is lost. There are dead whom the living cannot replace and the +mere thought of whom accomplishes things which their bodies could not +perform. There are dead whose energy surpasses death and recovers +life; and we are almost every one of us at this moment the mandataries +of a being greater, nobler, graver, wiser and more truly living than +ourselves. With all those who accompany him, he will be our judge, if +it is the fact that the dead weigh the soul of the living and that on +their verdict our happiness depends. He will be our guide and our +protector, for it is the first time, since history has revealed its +misfortunes to us, that man has felt so great a host of such mighty +dead soaring above his head and speaking within his heart. + + +5 + +We shall live henceforward under their laws, which will be more just +but not more severe nor more cheerless than ours; for it is a mistake +to suppose that the dead love nothing but gloom; they love only the +justice and the truth which are the eternal forms of happiness. From +the depths of this justice and this truth in which they are all +immersed, they will help us to destroy the great falsehoods of +existence: for war and death, if they sow innumerable miseries and +misfortunes, have at least the merit of destroying as many lies as +they occasion evils. And all the sacrifices which they have made for +us will have been in vain--and this is not possible--if they do not +first of all bring about the fall of the lies on which we live and +which it is not necessary to name, for each of us knows his own and is +ashamed of them and will be eager to make an end of them. They will +teach us, before all else, from the depths of our hearts which are +their living tombs, to love those who outlive them, since it is in +them alone that they wholly exist. + + * * * * * + + + + +WHEN THE WAR IS OVER + + + + +XXIII + +WHEN THE WAR IS OVER + + +1 + +Before closing this book, I wish to weigh for the last time in my +conscience the words of hatred and malediction which it has made me +speak in spite of myself. We have to do with the strangest of enemies. +He has knowingly and deliberately, while in the full possession of his +faculties and without necessity or excuse, revived all the crimes +which we supposed to be forever buried in the barbarous past. He has +trampled under foot all the precepts which man had so painfully won +from the cruel darkness of his beginnings; he has violated all the +laws of justice, humanity, loyalty and honour, from the highest, which +are almost godlike, to the simplest, the most elementary, which still +belong to the lower worlds. There is no longer any doubt on this +point: it has been proved over and over again until we have attained a +final certitude. + +But on the other hand, it is no less certain that he has displayed +virtues which it would be unworthy of us to deny; for we honour +ourselves in recognizing the valour of those whom we are fighting. He +has gone to his death in deep, compact, disciplined masses, with a +blind, hopeless, obstinate heroism of which no such lurid example had +ever yet been known, a heroism which has many times compelled our +admiration and our pity. He has known how to sacrifice himself, with +unprecedented and perhaps unequalled abnegation, to an idea which we +know to be false, inhuman and even somewhat mean, but which he +believes to be just and lofty; and a sacrifice of this kind, whatever +its object, is always the proof of a force which survives those who +devote themselves to making it and must command respect. + +I know very well that this heroism is not like the heroism which we +love. For us, heroism must before all be voluntary, freed from any +constraint, active, ardent, eager and spontaneous; whereas with them +it has mingled with it a great deal of servility, passiveness, +sadness, gloomy, ignorant, massive submission and rather base fears. +It is nevertheless the fact that, in the moment of supreme peril, +little remains of all these distinctions and that no force in the +world can drive to its death a people which does not bear within +itself the strength to confront it. Our soldiers make no mistake upon +this point. Question the men returning from the trenches: they detest +the enemy, they abhor the aggressor, the unjust and arrogant +aggressor, uncouth, too often cruel and treacherous; but they do not +hate the man: they do him justice; they pity him; and, after the +battle, in the defenceless wounded soldier or disarmed prisoner they +recognize, with astonishment, a brother in misfortune who, like +themselves, is submitting to duties and laws which, like themselves, +he too believes lofty and necessary. Under the insufferable enemy they +see an unhappy man who also is bearing the burden of life. They forget +the things that divide them to recall only those which unite them in a +common destiny; and they teach us a great lesson. Better than +ourselves, who are removed from danger, at the contact of profound and +fearful verities and realities they are already beginning to discern +something that we cannot yet perceive; and their obscure instinct is +probably anticipating the judgment of history and our own judgment, +when we see more clearly. Let us learn from them to be just and to +distinguish that which we are bound to despise and loathe from that +which we may pity, love and respect. + +Setting aside the unpardonable aggression and the inexpiable violation +of treaties, this war, despite its insanity, has come near to being a +bloody but magnificent proof of greatness, heroism and the spirit of +sacrifice. Humanity was ready to rise above itself, to surpass all +that it had hitherto accomplished. It has surpassed it. Never before +had nations been seen capable, for months on end, perhaps for years, +of renouncing their repose, their security, their wealth, their +comfort, all that they possessed and loved down to their very life, in +order to accomplish what they believed to be their duty. Never before +had nations been seen that were able as a whole to understand and +admit that the happiness of each of those who live in this time of +trial is of no consequence compared with the honour of those who live +no more or the happiness of those who are not yet alive. We stand on +heights that had not been attained before. And if, on the enemies' +side, this unexampled renunciation had not been poisoned at its +source; if the war which they are waging against us had been as fine, +as loyal, as generous, as chivalrous as that which we are waging +against them, we may well believe that it would have been the last and +that it would have ended, not in battle, but, like the awakening from +an evil dream, in a noble and fraternal amazement. They have made that +impossible; and this, we may be sure, is the disappointment which the +future will find it most difficult to forgive them. + + +2 + +What are we to do now? Must we hate the enemy to the end of time? The +burden of hatred is the heaviest that man can bear upon this earth; +and we should faint under the weight of it. On the other hand, we do +not wish once more to be the dupes and victims of confidence and love. +Here again our soldiers, in their simplicity, which is so clear-seeing +and so close to the truth, anticipate the future and teach us what to +admit and what to avoid. We have seen that they do not hate the man; +but they do not trust him at all. They discover the human being in him +only when he is unarmed. They know, from bitter experience, that, so +long as he possesses weapons, he cannot resist the frenzy of +destruction, treachery and slaughter; and that he does not become +kindly until he is rendered powerless. + +Is he thus by nature, or has he been perverted by those who lead him? +Have the rulers dragged the whole nation after them, or has the whole +nation driven its rulers on? Did the rulers make the nation like unto +themselves, or did the nation select and support them because they +resembled itself? Did the evil come from above or below, or was it +everywhere? Here we have the great and obscure point of this terrible +adventure. It is not easy to throw light upon it and still less easy +to find excuses for it. If our enemies prove that they were deceived +and corrupted by their masters, they prove, at the same time, that +they are less intelligent, less firmly attached to justice, honour and +humanity, less civilized, in a word, than those whom they claimed the +right to enslave in the name of a superiority which they themselves +have proved not to exist; and, unless they can establish that their +errors, perfidies and cruelties, which can no longer be denied, should +be imputed only to those masters, then they themselves must bear the +pitiless weight. I do not know how they will escape from this +predicament, nor what the future will decide, that future which is +wiser than the past, even as, in the words of an old Slav proverb, the +dawn is wiser than the eve. In the meanwhile, let us copy the prudence +of our soldiers, who know what to believe far better than we do. + + * * * * * + + + + +THE MASSACRE OF THE INNOCENTS + + + + +XXIV + +THE MASSACRE OF THE INNOCENTS + + + _The Massacre of the Innocents_ appeared for the first time + in 1886, in a little periodical called _La Pléïade_ which + some friends and I had founded in the Latin Quarter and + which died of inanition after its sixth number. My reason + for making room in the present volume for these pages + marking a very modest start--they were the first that found + their way into print--is not that I am under any delusion as + to the merits of this youthful work, in which I had simply + aimed at reproducing as best I could the different episodes + of a picture in the Brussels Museum, painted in the + sixteenth century by Pieter Brueghel the Elder. But it + appeared to me that circumstances had made of this humble + literary effort a sort of prophetic vision; for it is but + too likely that similar scenes must have been repeated in + more than one of our unhappy Flemish or Brabant villages and + that to describe them as they were lately enacted we should + have only to change the name of the butchers and probably, + alas, to accentuate their cruelty, their injustice and their + hideousness!--M. M. + + +It was close upon supper-time, that Friday the twenty-sixth day of the +month of December, when a little shepherd-lad came into Nazareth, +sobbing bitterly. + +Some peasants drinking ale in the Blue Lion opened the shutters to +look into the village orchard and observed the child running over the +snow. They saw that he was Korneliz' boy and cried from the window: + +"What's the matter? Get home with you to bed!" + +But he replied in terror that the Spaniards were come, that they had +set fire to the farm, hanged his mother among the walnut-trees and +bound his nine little sisters to the trunk of a big tree. + +The peasants rushed out of the inn, gathered round the child and plied +him with questions. Then he also told them that the soldiers were on +horseback and wore mail, that they had driven away the cattle of his +uncle Petrus Krayer and that they would soon be entering the forest +with the cows and sheep. + +All ran to the Golden Sun, where Korneliz and his brother-in-law were +also drinking their pot of ale; and the inn-keeper sped into the +village, shouting that the Spaniards were at hand. + +Then there was a great din in Nazareth. The women opened the windows +and the peasants left their houses with lights which they put out as +soon as they reached the orchard, where it was bright as midday, +because of the snow and the full moon. + +They crowded round Korneliz and Krayer in the market-place, in front +of the two inns. Several had brought their pitchforks and their rakes +and consulted one another, terror-stricken, under the trees. + +But, as they knew not what to do, one of them went to fetch the +parish-priest, who owned Korneliz' farm. He came out of his house with +the sacristan, bringing the keys of the church. All followed him into +the churchyard; and he shouted to them from the top of the tower that +he could see nothing in the fields nor in the forest, but that there +were red clouds in the neighbourhood of his farm, though the sky was +blue and full of stars over all the rest of the country. + +After deliberating for a long time in the churchyard, they decided to +hide in the wood through which the Spaniards would have to pass and to +attack them if they were not too many, so as to recover Petrus +Krayer's cattle and the plunder which they had taken from the farm. + +They armed themselves with pitchforks and spades; and the women +remained near the church with the priest. + +Seeking a suitable spot for their ambuscade, they came to a mill on +the skirt of the forest and saw the farm burning amid the starlight. +Here, under some huge oaks, in front of a frozen pool, they took up +their position. + +A shepherd whom they called the Red Dwarf went up the hill to warn the +miller, who had stopped his mill when he saw the flames on the +horizon. He invited the fellow in, however; and the two of them placed +themselves at a window to watch the distance. + +In front of them the moon was shining over the burning farm; and they +saw a long host marching over the snow. When they had taken stock of +it, the Dwarf went down to those in the forest; and presently they +descried four horsemen above a herd of animals that seemed to be +cropping the grass. + +As the men, in their blue hose and their red cloaks, were looking +around them on the edge of the pool and under the snow-lit trees, the +sacristan pointed to a box-hedge; and they went and hid behind it. + +The cattle and the Spaniards came over the ice; and the sheep on +reaching the hedge were already beginning to nibble at the leaves, +when Korneliz broke through the bushes; and the others followed with +their pitchforks into the light. Then there was a great slaughter on +the pond, while the huddled sheep and the cows gazed at the battle in +their midst and at the moon above them. + +When the men and the horses had been killed, Korneliz ran into the +meadows towards the flames; and the others stripped the dead. Then +they went back to the village with the herds. The women watching the +gloomy forest from behind the walls of the churchyard saw them +approaching through the trees and, with the priest, hurried to meet +them; and they returned dancing gleefully all amongst the children and +the dogs. + +While they made merry under the pear-trees in the orchard, where the +Red Dwarf hung up lanterns as a sign of kermis, they consulted the +priest as to what they were to do. + +They at last resolved to put a horse to a cart and fetch the bodies of +the woman and her nine little daughters to the village. The dead +woman's sisters and the other peasant-women of her family climbed into +it, as did the priest, who was not well able to walk, being advanced +in years and very stout. + +They entered the forest once more and arrived in silence at the +dazzling white plain, where they saw the naked men and the horses +lying on their backs upon the gleaming ice among the trees. Then they +went on to the farm, which they could see burning in the distance. + +When they came to the orchard and to the house all red with flames, +they stopped at the gate to mark the great misfortune that had +befallen the farmer in his garden. His wife was hanging all naked from +the branches of a great walnut-tree; he himself was mounting a ladder +to climb the tree, around which the nine little girls were waiting +for their mother on the grass. Already he was walking among the huge +boughs, when suddenly he saw the crowd, black against the snow, +watching him. Weeping, he made signs to them to help him; and they +went into the garden. Then the sacristan, the Red Dwarf, the landlord +of the Blue Lion and he of the Golden Sun, the parish-priest, with a +lantern, and many other peasants climbed into the snow-laden +walnut-tree to cut down the corpse, which the women of the village +received in their arms at the foot of the tree, even as at the descent +from the Cross of Our Lord Jesus Christ. + +The next day they buried her; and nothing else out of the common +happened at Nazareth that week. But, on the following Sunday, hungry +wolves ran through the village after high mass and it snowed until +noon; then the sun suddenly shone in the sky; and the peasants went +in to dinner, as was their wont, and dressed for benediction. + +At that moment there was no one in the market-place, for it was +freezing cruelly. Only the dogs and hens remained under the trees, +where some sheep were nibbling at a three-cornered patch of grass, +while the priest's maid-servant swept away the snow from the +presbytery-garden. + +Then a troop of armed men crossed the stone bridge at the end of the +village and halted in the orchard. Some peasants came out of their +houses; but, on recognizing the Spaniards, they retreated in terror +and went to their windows to see what would happen. + +There were some thirty horsemen, clad in armour, around an old man +with a white beard. Behind them they carried red and yellow +foot-soldiers, who jumped down and ran over the snow to shake off +their stiffness, while several of the men in armour also alighted and +eased themselves against the trees to which they had fastened their +horses. + +Then they turned to the Golden Sun and knocked at the door. It was +opened hesitatingly; and they warmed themselves at the fire and called +for ale. + +Next they came out of the inn, carrying pots and jugs and wheaten +loaves for their comrades, who sat ranked around the man with the +white beard, waiting in the midst of the lances. + +As the street was empty, the commander sent horsemen to the back of +the houses, to guard the village on its open side, and ordered the +foot-soldiers to bring to him all the children of two years old and +under, to be massacred, as is written in the Gospel according to St. +Matthew. + +The soldiers went first to the inn of the Green Cabbage and to the +barber's cottage, which stood side by side, midway in the street. + +One of them opened a stable-door; and a litter of pigs escaped and +scattered over the village. The inn-keeper and the barber came out and +humbly asked the soldiers what they wanted; but the men knew no +Flemish and went in to look for the children. + +The inn-keeper had one, which sat crying in its little shirt on the +table where they had just had dinner. A man took the child in his arms +and carried it away under the apple-tree, while the father and mother +followed him with cries of lamentation. + +The soldiers also threw open the cooper's shed and the blacksmith's +and the cobbler's; and the calves, cows, asses, pigs, goats and sheep +strayed about the market-place. When the men broke the glass of the +carpenter's windows, several of the peasants, including the oldest and +richest farmers in the parish, assembled in the street and went +towards the Spaniards. They doffed their hats and caps respectfully to +the leader in his velvet cloak and asked him what he was going to do; +but even he did not understand their language; and some one went to +fetch the priest. + +He was making ready for benediction and putting on a gold cope in the +sacristy. The peasant called out: + +"The Spaniards are in the orchard!" + +Horrified, the priest ran to the church-door, accompanied by the +serving-boys carrying tapers and censer. + +Then he saw the animals released from their sheds roaming on the snow +and the grass, the horsemen in the village, the soldiers outside the +doors, the horses tied to the trees along the street and the men and +women entreating him who was holding the child in its shirt. + +He rushed to the churchyard; and the peasants turned anxiously to +their priest, coming through the pear-trees like a god robed in gold, +and stood around him and the man with the white beard. + +He spoke in Flemish and Latin; but the commander shrugged his +shoulders slowly up and down to show that he did not understand. + +His parishioners asked him under their breath: + +"What does he say? What is he going to do?" + +Others, on seeing the priest in the orchard, came timidly from their +farms; the women hurried up and stood whispering among the groups; +while some soldiers who were besieging an inn ran back at the sight of +the great crowd that was forming in the market-place. + +Then the man who was holding by one leg the child of the landlord of +the Green Cabbage cut off its head with his sword. + +The head fell before their eyes and the body fell after it and lay +bleeding on the grass. The mother picked it up and carried it away, +leaving the head behind her. She ran towards the house, but stumbled +against a tree and fell flat on the snow, where she lay in a swoon, +while the father struggled between two soldiers. + +Some of the younger peasants threw stones and blocks of wood at the +Spaniards, but the horsemen all lowered their lances together, the +women fled and the priest began to cry out in horror with his +parishioners, all among the sheep, the geese and the dogs. + +However, as the soldiers were once more moving down the street, the +folk stood silent to see what they would do. + +The band entered the shop kept by the sacristan's sisters and then +came out quietly, without harming the seven women, who knelt on the +doorstep praying. + +Next they went to the inn owned by the Hunchback of St. Nicholas. Here +also the door was opened directly, to appease them; but they +reappeared amid a great outcry, with three children in their arms and +surrounded by the Hunchback, his wife and his daughters, clasping +their hands in token of entreaty. + +On reaching the old man, the soldiers put down the children at the +foot of an elm, where they remained, sitting on the snow in their +Sunday clothes. But one of them, who wore a yellow frock, rose and +toddled towards the sheep. A man ran after it with his naked sword; +and the child died with its face in the grass, while the others were +killed not far from the tree. + +All the peasants and the inn-keeper's daughters took to flight, +shrieking as they went, and returned to their homes. The priest, left +alone in the orchard, besought the Spaniards with loud cries, going on +his knees from horse to horse, with his arms crossed upon his breast, +while the father and mother, sitting in the snow, wept piteously for +the dead children that lay in their laps. + +As the soldiers ran along the street, they remarked a big blue +farm-house. They tried to break down the door, but it was of oak and +studded with nails. Then they took some tubs that were frozen in a +pool in front of the house and used them to climb to the upper +windows, through which they made their way. + +There had been a kermis at this farm; and kinsfolk had come to eat +waffles, ham and custards with their family. At the sound of the +broken panes, they had assembled behind the table covered with jugs +and dishes. The soldiers entered the kitchen and, after a desperate +struggle, in which many were wounded, they seized the little boys and +girls, as well as the hind, who had bitten a soldier's thumb. Then +they left the house, locking the door behind them to prevent the +inmates from going with them. + +Those of the villagers who had no children slowly left their homes and +followed them from afar. When the soldiers carrying their victims came +to the old man, they threw them on the grass and deliberately killed +them with their spears and their swords, while all along the front of +the blue house the men and women leant out of the windows of the upper +floor and the loft, cursing and rocking wildly in the sunshine at the +sight of the red, pink and white frocks of their little ones lying +motionless on the grass among the trees. Then the soldiers hanged the +hind from the sign of the Half Moon on the other side of the street; +and there was a long silence in the village. + +The massacre now began to spread. Mothers ran out of the houses and +tried to escape to the open country through the gardens and +kitchen-plots; but the horsemen scoured after them and drove them back +into the street. Peasants, holding their caps in their clasped hands, +followed upon their knees the men who were dragging away their +children, among the dogs which barked deliriously amid the din. The +priest, with his arms raised aloft, ran along the houses and under the +trees, praying desperately, like a martyr; and soldiers, shivering +with cold, blew on their fingers as they moved about the road, or, +with their hands in the pockets of their trunks and their swords +tucked under their arms, waited beneath the windows of the houses that +were being scaled. + +On seeing the grief-stricken terror of the peasants, they entered the +farm-houses in little bands; and in like fashion they acted throughout +the length of the street. + +A woman who sold vegetables in the old red-brick cottage near the +church seized a chair and ran after two men who were carrying off her +children in a wheel-barrow. When she saw them die, a sickness overcame +her; and she suffered the folk to press her into the chair, against a +tree by the road-side. + +Other soldiers climbed up the lime-trees in front of a house painted +lilac and removed the tiles in order to enter the house. When they +came out again upon the roof, the father and mother, with outstretched +arms, also appeared in the opening; and they pushed them down +repeatedly, cutting them over the head with their swords, before they +could descend into the street. + +One family, which had locked itself into the cellar of a rambling +cottage, cried through the grating, where the father stood madly +brandishing a pitchfork. An old, bald-headed man was sobbing all alone +on a dung-heap; a woman in yellow had fainted in the market-place and +her husband was holding her under her arms and moaning in the shadow +of a pear-tree; another, in red, was kissing her little girl, who had +lost her hands, and lifting first one arm and then the other to see if +she would not move. Yet another ran into the country and the soldiers +pursued her through the hayricks that bounded the snow-clad fields. + +Beneath the inn of the Four Sons of Aymon there was a tumult as of a +siege. The inhabitants had barred the door; and the soldiers went +round and round the house without being able to make their way in. +They were trying to clamber up to the sign by the fruit-trees against +the front wall, when they caught sight of a ladder behind the +garden-door. They set it against the wall and mounted one after the +other. Thereupon the landlord and all his household hurled tables, +chairs, dishes and cradles at them from the windows. The ladder upset +and the soldiers fell down. + +In a wooden hut, at the end of the village, another band found a +peasant-woman bathing her children in a tub by the fire. Being old and +almost deaf, she did not hear them come in. Two soldiers took the tub +and carried it off; and the dazed woman went after them, with the +children's clothes, wanting to dress them. But, when she came to the +door and suddenly saw the splashes of blood in the village, the swords +in the orchard, the cradles over-turned in the street, women on their +knees and women waving their arms around the dead, she began to cry +out with all her strength and to strike the soldiers, who put down the +tub to defend themselves. The priest also came hastening up and, +folding his hands across his vestment, entreated the Spaniards before +the naked children, who were whimpering in the water. Other soldiers +then came up and pushed him aside and bound the raving peasant-woman +to a tree. + +The butcher had hidden his little daughter and, leaning against his +house, looked on in unconcern. A foot-soldier and one of the men in +armour went in and discovered the child in a copper cauldron. Then the +butcher, in desperation, took one of his knives and chased them down +the street; but a band that was passing struck the knife from his +grasp and hanged him by the hands to the hooks in his wall, among the +flayed carcases, where he twitched his legs and jerked his head and +cursed and swore till evening. + +Near the churchyard, a crowd had assembled outside a long green +farm-house. The farmer stood on his threshold weeping bitter tears; as +he was very fat, with a face made for smiling, the hearts of the +soldiers softened in some measure as they sat in the sun with their +backs to the wall, listening to him and patting his dog the while. But +the one who was dragging the child away by the hand made gestures as +though to say: + +"You may save your tears! It is not my fault!" + +A peasant who was being hotly pursued sprang into a boat moored to the +stone bridge and pushed across the pond with his wife and children. +The soldiers, not daring to venture on the ice, strode angrily through +the reeds. They climbed into the willows on the bank, trying to reach +them with their spears; and, when they failed, continued for a long +time to threaten the family, where they all sat cowering in the middle +of the water. + +Meanwhile, the orchard was still full of people, for it was there that +most of the children were slain, in front of the man with the white +beard who directed the massacre. The little boys and girls who were +big enough to walk alone also collected there and, munching their +bread-and-butter, stood looking on curiously to see the others die or +gathered round the village idiot, who lay upon the grass playing a +whistle. + +Then suddenly a movement ran through the length of the village. The +peasants were turning their steps toward the castle, standing on a +high mound of yellow earth at the end of the street. They had caught +sight of the lord of the village leaning on the battlements of his +tower, watching the massacre. And the men, women and old folk +stretched out their arms to him where he sat in his cloak of purple +velvet and cap of gold and entreated him as though he were a king in +heaven. But he threw up his arms and shrugged his shoulders, to show +his helplessness; and, when they implored him in ever-increasing +anguish and knelt bareheaded in the snow, uttering loud cries, he +turned back slowly into the tower; and in the hearts of the peasants +all hope died. + +When all the children were killed, the tired soldiers wiped their +swords on the grass and supped under the pear-trees. Then the +foot-soldiers mounted behind the others and they all rode out of +Nazareth together, by the stone bridge, as they had come. + +The setting sun lit the forest with a red light and painted the +village a new colour. Weary with running and entreating, the priest +had sat down in the snow in front of the church; and his servant-maid +stood near him, looking around. They saw the street and the orchard +filled with peasants in their holiday attire, moving about the +market-place and along the houses. Outside the doors, families, with +their dead children on their knees, whispered in amazement and horror +of the fate wherewith they had been assailed. Others were still +mourning the child where it had fallen, near a cask, under a barrow or +at a puddle's edge, or were carrying it away in silence. Several were +already washing the benches, chairs, tables and shirts all smirched +with blood and picking up the cradles that had been flung into the +street. But nearly all the mothers were kneeling on the grass under +the trees, before the dead bodies, which they knew by their woollen +frocks. Those who had no children were roaming about the market-place, +stopping to gaze at the afflicted groups. The men who had done weeping +took the dogs and started in pursuit of their strayed beasts, or +mended their broken windows or gaping roofs, while the village grew +hushed and still beneath the light of the moon as it rose slowly in +the sky. + + +THE END + + + + + * * * * * + +Transcriber's Notes + +The following typographical errors have been corrected from the +original book: + +Page 083: inquity changed to iniquity + (example of iniquity would strike the ideals of mankind) + +Page 113: magnificnt " " magnificent + (rejuvenated by our magnificent misfortune,) + +Page 126: alwas " " always + (and always ready with his pleasant smile,) + +Page 174: man " " men + ("So died these men as became Athenians.) + +Page 178: centuies " " centuries + (These words spoken twenty-three centuries ago) + +Page 183: catacylsm " " cataclysm + (if this cataclysm let loose by an act of unutterable) + +Page 232: sorsow " " sorrow + (Alas, yes! I had heard of your sorrow;) + +Page 236: Then " " They + (They need love as much as do the living.) + +Page 247: (section number) 2 " " 3 + (3 All these, on examination, leave but a worthless residuum;) + +Page 305: Breughel " " Brueghel + (painted in the sixteenth century by Pieter Brueghel the Elder.) + +Page 327: missing ending quotes were added + ("You may save your tears! It is not my fault!") + +Other spelling variations, for example, Renascence (pg. 64) and +behoves (pg. 119), have been retained. + + + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Wrack of the Storm, by Maurice Maeterlinck + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WRACK OF THE STORM *** + +***** This file should be named 17861-8.txt or 17861-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/7/8/6/17861/ + +Produced by Diane Monico and the Project Gutenberg Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Wrack of the Storm + +Author: Maurice Maeterlinck + +Translator: Alexander Teixeira de Mattos + +Release Date: February 26, 2006 [EBook #17861] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WRACK OF THE STORM *** + + + + +Produced by Diane Monico and the Project Gutenberg Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + + + + + +<h1>THE WRACK OF THE STORM</h1> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + + + + +<h4> +THE WORKS OF MAURICE MAETERLINCK</h4> + +<p class="center"><big>ESSAYS</big></p> + +<ul class="works"> +<li><span class="smcap">The Treasure of the Humble</span> </li> +<li><span class="smcap">Wisdom and Destiny</span> </li> +<li><span class="smcap">The Life of the Bee</span> </li> +<li><span class="smcap">The Buried Temple</span> </li> +<li><span class="smcap">The Double Garden</span> </li> +<li><span class="smcap">The Measure of the Hours</span> </li> +<li><span class="smcap">On Emerson, and Other Essays</span> </li> +<li><span class="smcap">Our Eternity</span> </li> +<li><span class="smcap">The Unknown Guest</span> </li> +<li><span class="smcap">The Wrack of the Storm</span> </li> +</ul> + +<p class="center"><big>PLAYS</big></p> + +<ul class="works"> +<li><span class="smcap">Sister Beatrice, and Ardiane and Barbe Bleue</span></li> +<li><span class="smcap">Joyzelle, and Monna Vanna</span> </li> +<li><span class="smcap">The Blue Bird, A Fairy Play</span> </li> +<li><span class="smcap">Mary Magdalene</span> </li> +<li><span class="smcap">Pélléas and Mélisande, and Other Plays</span> </li> +<li><span class="smcap">Princess Maleine</span> </li> +<li><span class="smcap">The Intruder, and Other Plays</span> </li> +<li><span class="smcap">Aglavaine and Selysette</span> </li> +</ul> + +<p class="center"><big>HOLIDAY EDITIONS</big></p> + +<ul class="works"> +<li><span class="smcap">Our Friend the Dog</span> </li> +<li><span class="smcap">The Swarm</span> </li> +<li><span class="smcap">The Intelligence of the Flowers</span> </li> +<li><span class="smcap">Death</span> </li> +<li><span class="smcap">Thoughts from Maeterlinck</span> </li> +<li><span class="smcap">The Blue Bird</span> </li> +<li><span class="smcap">The Life of the Bee</span> </li> +<li><span class="smcap">News of Spring and Other Nature Studies</span> </li> +<li><span class="smcap">Poems</span></li> +</ul> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + + +<h1>The<br /> +Wrack of the Storm</h1> + +<h4>BY</h4> + +<h3>MAURICE MAETERLINCK<br /><br /><br /></h3> + + +<h4><i>Translated by</i></h4> + +<h3>ALEXANDER TEIXEIRA DE MATTOS<br /><br /><br /><br /></h3> + + +<p class="center">NEW YORK<br /> +<big>DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY</big><br /> +1916</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Copyright</span>, 1916</p> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">By Dodd, Mead and Company, Inc.</span> +</p> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span></p> +<h2>AUTHOR'S PREFACE</h2> + + +<p>The reader taking up this volume will, for the first time in the work +of one who hitherto had cursed no man, find words of hatred and +malediction. I would gladly have avoided them, for I hold that he who +takes upon himself to write pledges himself to say nothing that can +derogate from the respect and love which we owe to all men. I have had +to utter these words; and I am as much surprised as saddened at what I +have been constrained to say by the force of events and of truth. I +loved Germany and numbered friends there, who now, dead or living, are +alike dead to me. I thought her great and upright and generous; and to +me she was ever kindly and hospitable. But there are crimes that +obliterate the past and close the future. In <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span>rejecting hatred I +should have shown myself a traitor to love.</p> + +<p>I tried to lift myself above the fray; but, the higher I rose, the +more I saw of the madness and the horror of it, of the justice of one +cause and the infamy of the other. It is possible that one day, when +time has wearied remembrance and restored the ruins, wise men will +tell us that we were mistaken and that our standpoint was not lofty +enough; but they will say it because they will no longer know what we +know, nor will they have seen what we have seen.</p> + +<p class="citation"> +<span class="smcap">Maurice Maeterlinck</span>.</p> + +<p class="smcap"><span style="margin-left: 2em;">Nice</span>, 1916. +</p> + + + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span></p><hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="TRANSLATORS_NOTE" id="TRANSLATORS_NOTE"></a>TRANSLATOR'S NOTE</h2> + + +<p>The present volume contains, in the chronological order in which they +were produced, all the essays published and all the speeches delivered +by M. Maeterlinck since the beginning of the war, upon which, as will +be perceived, each one of them has a direct bearing. They are printed +as written; and they throw an interesting light upon the successive +phases of the author's psychology during the Titanic and hideous +struggle that has affected the mental attitude of us all.</p> + +<p><i>In Italy</i> forms the preface to M. Jules Destrée's book, <i>En Italie +avant la guerre, 1914-15</i>. Of the remaining essays, some have appeared +in various English and American periodicals; others are now printed in +translation for the first time.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span></p> + +<p>I have also had M. Maeterlinck's leave to include in this volume his +first published work, <i>The Massacre of the Innocents</i>. This powerful +sketch in the Flemish manner saw the light originally in the +<i>Pléïade</i>, in 1886, and may at the present time, to use the author's +own words in a note to myself, be regarded as "a sort of vague +symbolic prophecy." An English version by Mrs. Edith Wingate Rinder +was printed in the <i>Dome</i> in 1899; another has since been issued by an +English and by an American firm of publishers; but the only authorized +translation to appear in book form is that now added as an epilogue to +<i>The Wrack of the Storm</i>.</p> + +<p class="citation"><span class="smcap">Alexander Teixeira de Mattos</span>. +</p> +<p class="smcap"><span style="margin-left: 2em;">Chelsea</span>, 1916. +</p> + + + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span></p><hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CONTENTS" id="CONTENTS"></a>CONTENTS</h2> + + + +<div class='center'> +<table border="0" cellpadding="6" cellspacing="0" summary="TOC"> +<tr><td></td><td></td><td align='right'><small>PAGE</small></td></tr> +<tr><td></td><td align='left'>AUTHOR'S PREFACE</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_5">5</a></td></tr> +<tr><td></td><td align='left'>TRANSLATOR'S NOTE</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_7">7</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>I</td><td align='left'> AFTER THE VICTORY</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_11">11</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>II</td><td align='left'> KING ALBERT </td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_21">21</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>III</td><td align='left'> THE HOSTAGE CITIES </td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_31">31</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>IV</td><td align='left'> TO SAVE FOUR CITIES</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_37">37</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>V</td><td align='left'> PRO PATRIA: I </td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_45">45</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>VI</td><td align='left'> HEROISM </td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_59">59</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>VII</td><td align='left'> PRO PATRIA: II </td><td align='right'> <a href="#Page_75">75</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>VIII</td><td align='left'> PRO PATRIA: III </td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_89">89</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>IX</td><td align='left'> BELGIUM'S FLAG DAY</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_109">109</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>X</td><td align='left'> ON THE DEATH OF A LITTLE SOLDIER</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_117">117</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>XI</td><td align='left'> THE HOUR OF DESTINY </td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_131">131</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>XII</td><td align='left'> IN ITALY </td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_147">147</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>XIII</td><td align='left'> ON REREADING THUCYDIDES </td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_161">161</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>XIV</td><td align='left'> THE DEAD DO NOT DIE </td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_179">179</a><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>XV</td><td align='left'> IN MEMORIAM </td><td align='right'> <a href="#Page_191">191</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>XVI</td><td align='left'> SUPERNATURAL COMMUNICATIONS IN WAR-TIME </td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_197">197</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>XVII</td><td align='left'> EDITH CAVELL </td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_217">217</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>XVIII</td><td align='left'>THE LIFE OF THE DEAD</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_229">229</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>XIX</td><td align='left'> THE WAR AND THE PROPHETS</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_241">241</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>XX</td><td align='left'> THE WILL OF EARTH </td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_257">257</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>XXI</td><td align='left'> FOR POLAND </td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_271">271</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>XXII</td><td align='left'> THE MIGHT OF THE DEAD </td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_279">279</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>XXIII</td><td align='left'>WHEN THE WAR IS OVER</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_291">291</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>XXIV</td><td align='left'> THE MASSACRE OF THE INNOCENTS </td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_303">303</a></td></tr> +</table></div> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="AFTER_THE_VICTORY" id="AFTER_THE_VICTORY"></a>AFTER THE VICTORY</h2> + + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span></p><hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h1><a name="THE_WRACK_OF_THE_STORM" id="THE_WRACK_OF_THE_STORM"></a>THE WRACK OF THE STORM</h1> + +<h2>I</h2> + +<h3>AFTER THE VICTORY<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a></h3> + + +<h4>1</h4> + +<p>At these moments of tragedy, none should be allowed to speak who +cannot shoulder a rifle, for the written word seems so monstrously +useless, so overwhelmingly trivial, in front of this mighty drama +which shall for a long time, it may be for ever, free mankind from the +scourge of war: the one scourge among all that cannot be excused, that +cannot be explained, since alone among all it issues entire from the +hands of man.</p> + + +<h4>2</h4> + +<p>But it is while this scourge is upon us, while we have our being in +its very centre,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span> that we shall do well to balance the guilt of those +who have committed this inexpiable crime. It is now, while we are in +the thick of the horror, undergoing it, feeling it, that we have the +energy, the clear-sightedness needed to judge it; from the depths of +the most fearful injustice justice is best perceived. When the hour +shall have come for settling accounts—and it will not long delay—we +shall have forgotten much of what we have suffered and a blameworthy +pity will creep over us and cloud our eyes. This is the moment, +therefore, for us to frame our inexorable resolution. After the final +victory, when the enemy is crushed—as crushed he will be—efforts +will be made to enlist our sympathy, to move us to pity. We shall be +told that the unfortunate German people were merely the victims of +their monarch and their feudal caste; that no blame attaches to the +Germany we know, which is so <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span>sympathetic and so cordial—the Germany +of quaint old houses and open-hearted greeting, the Germany that sits +under its lime-trees beneath the clear light of the moon—but only to +Prussia, hateful, arrogant Prussia; that the homely, peace-loving, +Bavarian, the genial and hospitable dwellers on the banks of the +Rhine, the Silesian and Saxon and I know not who besides—for all +these will suddenly have become whiter than snow and more inoffensive +than the sheep in an English fold—that they all have merely obeyed, +have been compelled to obey orders which they detested but were unable +to resist. We are face to face with reality now; let us look at it +well and pronounce our sentence; for this is the moment when we hold +the proofs in our hands, when the elements of crime are hot before us +and shout out the truth that soon will fade from our memory. Let us +tell ourselves now, therefore, now, that all that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span> we shall be told +hereafter will be false; and let us unflinchingly adhere to what we +decide at this moment, when the glare of the horror is on us.</p> + + +<h4>3</h4> + +<p>It is not true that in this gigantic crime there are innocent and +guilty, or degrees of guilt. They stand on one level, all those who +have taken part in it. The German from the North has no more special +craving for blood and outrage than he from the South has special +tenderness or pity. It is, very simply, the German, from one end of +his country to the other, who stands revealed as a beast of prey which +the firm will of our planet finally repudiates. We have here no +wretched slaves dragged along by a tyrant king who alone is +responsible. Nations have the government which they deserve, or +rather, the government which they have is truly no more than the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span> +magnified and public projection of the private morality and mentality +of the nation. If eighty million innocent people select and support a +monstrous king, those eighty million innocent people merely expose the +inherent falseness and superficiality of their innocence; and it is +the monster they maintain at their head who stands for all that is +true in their nature, because it is he who represents the eternal +aspirations of their race, which lie far deeper than their apparent +and transient virtues. Let there be no suggestion of error, of having +been led astray, of an intelligent people having been tricked or +misled. No nation can be deceived that does not wish to be deceived; +and it is not intelligence that Germany lacks. In the sphere of +intellect such things are not possible; nor in the region of +enlightened, reflecting will. No nation permits herself to be coerced +to the one crime that man cannot pardon. It is of her own<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span> accord that +she hastens towards it; her chief has no need to persuade, it is she +who urges him on.</p> + + +<h4>4</h4> + +<p>We have forces here quite different from those on the surface, forces +that are secret, irresistible and profound. It is these that we must +judge, these that we must crush under our heel, once and for all; for +they are the only ones that will not be improved or softened or +brought into line by experience or progress, or even by the bitterest +lesson. They are unalterable and immovable, their springs lie far +beneath hope or influence; and they must be destroyed as we destroy a +nest of wasps, since we know that these never can change into a nest +of bees. And, even though individually and singly the Germans were all +innocent and merely led astray, they would be none the less guilty in +the mass. This is the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span> guilt that counts, that alone is actual and +real, because it lays bare, underneath their superficial innocence, +the subconscious criminality of all.</p> + + +<h4>5</h4> + +<p>No influence can prevail on the unconscious or the subconscious. It +never evolves. Let there come a thousand years of civilization, a +thousand years of peace, with all possible refinements of art and +education, the subconscious element of the German spirit, which is its +unvarying element, will remain absolutely the same as it is to-day and +would declare itself, when the opportunity came, under the same +aspect, with the same infamy. Through the whole course of history, two +distinct willpowers have been noticed that would seem to be the +opposed, elemental manifestations of the spirit of our globe, the one +seeking only evil, injustice, tyranny and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span>suffering, while the other +strives for liberty, the right, radiance and joy. These two powers +stand once again face to face; our opportunity is now to annihilate +the one that comes from below. Let us know how to be pitiless that we +may have no more need for pity. It is a measure of organic defence. It +is essential that the modern world should stamp out Prussian +militarism as it would stamp out a poisonous fungus that for half a +century had disturbed and polluted its days. The health of our planet +is in question. To-morrow the United States of Europe will have to +take measures for the convalescence of the earth.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> Translated by Alfred Sutro.</p></div> +</div> + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span></p><hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="KING_ALBERT" id="KING_ALBERT"></a>KING ALBERT</h2> + + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span></p><hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="II" id="II"></a>II</h2> + +<h3>KING ALBERT</h3> + + +<h4>1</h4> + +<p>Of all the heroes of this stupendous war, heroes who will live in the +memory of man, one assuredly of the most unsullied, one of those whom +we can never love enough, is the great young king of my little +country.</p> + +<p>He was indeed at the critical hour the appointed man, the man for whom +every heart was waiting. With sudden beauty he embodied the mighty +voice of his people. He stood, upon the moment, for Belgium, revealed +unto herself and unto others. He had the wonderful good fortune to +realize and bestow a conscience in one of those dread hours of tragedy +and perplexity when the best of consciences waver.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span></p> + +<p>Had he not been at hand, there is no doubt but that all would have +happened differently; and history would have lost one of her fairest +and noblest pages. Certainly Belgium would have been loyal and true to +her word; and any government would have been swept away, pitilessly +and irresistibly, by the indignation of a people that had never, +however far we probe into the past, played false. But there would have +been much of that confusion and irresolution inevitable in a host +suddenly threatened with disaster. There would have been vain talking, +mistaken measures, excusable but irreparable vacillations; and, above +all, the much-needed words, the precise and final words, would not +have been spoken and the deeds, than which we can picture none more +resolute, none greater, would not have been done at the right moment.</p> + +<p>Thanks to the king, the peerless act shines forth and is maintained +complete,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span> unfaltering; and the path of heroism is straight and +clearly defined and splendid as that of Thermopylæ indefinitely +extended.</p> + + +<h4>2</h4> + +<p>But what he has suffered, what he suffers day by day only those can +understand who have had the privilege of access to this hero: the most +sensitive and the gentlest of men, silent and reserved; a man of +controlled emotions, modest with a timidity that is at once baffling +and delightful; loving his people less as a father loves his children +than as a son loves his adoring mother. Of all that cherished kingdom, +his pride and his joy, the seat of his happiness, the centre of his +love and his security, there is left intact but a handful of cities, +which are threatened at every moment by the foulest invader that the +world has ever borne.</p> + +<p>All the others—so quaint or so beautiful, so bright, so serene, happy +to be there, so<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span> inoffensive—jewels in the crown of Peace, models of +pure and upright family life, homes of loyal and dutiful industry, of +ready, ever-smiling geniality, with the natural welcome, the +ever-proffered hand and the ever-open heart: all the others are dead +cities, of which not one stone is left upon another; and the very +country-side, one of the fairest in this world, with its gentle +pastures, is now no more than one vast field of horror.</p> + +<p>Treasures have perished that were numbered among the noblest and +dearest possessions of mankind; monuments have disappeared which +nothing can replace; and the half of a nation, among all nations the +most attached to its old simple habits, its humble homes, is at +present wandering along the roads of Europe. Thousands of innocent +people have been massacred; and of those who remain nearly all are +doomed to poverty and hunger.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span></p> + +<p>But that remainder has but one soul, which has taken refuge in the +spacious soul of its king. Not a murmur, not a word of reproach! But +yesterday a town of thirty thousand inhabitants received the order to +forsake its white houses, its churches, its ancient streets and +squares, the scene of a light-hearted and industrious life. The thirty +thousand inhabitants, women and children and old men, set forth to +seek an uncertain refuge in a neighbouring city, which is threatened +almost as directly as their own and which to-morrow, it may be, must +in its turn set forth, but whither none can say, for the country is so +small that its boundaries are quickly reached, its shelter soon +exhausted.</p> + +<p>No matter: they obey in silence and one and all approve and bless +their sovereign. He did what had to be done, what every one in his +place would have done; and, though they are all suffering as no +people<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span> has suffered since the barbarous invasions of the earliest +ages, they know that he suffers more than any of them, for in him all +their sorrows find a goal; in him they are reflected and enhanced. +They do not even harbour the idea that they might have been saved by a +sacrifice of honour. They draw no distinction between duty and +destiny. To them that duty, with its frightful consequences, seems as +inevitable as a natural force against which we cannot even dream of +struggling, so great is it and so invincible.</p> + + +<h4>3</h4> + +<p>Here is an example of the collective bravery of nameless heroes, an +ingenuous and almost unconscious courage, which rivals and at times +exceeds the most exalted deeds in legend and history, for since the +days of the great martyrs men have never suffered death more simply +for a simple idea.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span></p> + +<p>And, if amid the anguish of our struggle it were seemly to speak of +aught but tears and lamentations, we should find a magnificent +consolation in the spectacle of the unexpected heroism that suddenly +surrounds us on every side. It may well be said that never in the +memory of mankind have men sacrificed their lives with such zest, such +self-abnegation, such enthusiasm; and that the immortal virtues which +to this day have uplifted and preserved the flower of the human race +have never shone more brilliantly, never manifested greater power, +energy or youth.</p> + + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span></p><hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="THE_HOSTAGE_CITIES" id="THE_HOSTAGE_CITIES"></a>THE HOSTAGE CITIES</h2> + + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span></p><hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="III" id="III"></a>III</h2> + +<h3>THE HOSTAGE CITIES</h3> + + +<h4>1</h4> + +<p>Thanks to the heroism of the Allies, the hour is approaching when the +hordes of William the Madman will quit the soil of afflicted Belgium.</p> + +<p>After what they have done in cold blood, what excesses, what disasters +must we not expect of the last convulsions of their rage? Our anguish +is all the more poignant in that they are at this moment fighting in +the most ancient and most precious portion of Flanders. Above all +countries, this is historic and hallowed land. They have destroyed +Termonde, Roulers, Charleroi, Mons, Namur, Thielt and more besides; +happy, charming little towns, which will rise again from their ashes, +more beautiful than <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span>before. They have annihilated Louvain and +Malines; they have but lately levelled Dixmude; their torches, their +incendiary squirts and their bombs are about to attack Brussels, +Antwerp, Ghent, Bruges, Ypres and Furnes, which are like so many +living museums, forming one of the most delightful, delicate and +fragile ornaments of Europe. The things which are beginning here and +which may be completed would be irreparable. They would mean a loss to +our race for which nothing could atone. A quite peculiar +aspect—familiar, kindly, racy of the soil and unique—of that beauty +which a long series of comely human lives is able to acquire and to +hoard would disappear for ever from the face of the earth; and we +cannot, in the trouble and confusion of these too tragic hours, +realize the extent, the meaning or the consequences of such a crime.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span></p> + + +<h4>2</h4> + +<p>We have made every sacrifice without complaining; but this would +exceed all measure. What can be done? How are we to stop them? They +seem to be no longer accessible to reason or to any of the feelings +which men hold in honour; they are sensible only to blows. Very soon, +as they must know, we shall have the power to strike them shrewdly. +Why do not the Allies, this very day, swiftly, while yet there is +time, name so many hostage cities, which would be answerable, stone +for stone, for the existence of our own dear towns? If Brussels, for +example, should be destroyed, then Berlin should be razed to the +ground. If Antwerp were devastated, Hamburg would disappear. Nuremburg +would guarantee Bruges; Munich would stand surety for Ghent.</p> + +<p>At the present moment, when they are feeling the wind of defeat that +blows<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span> through their tattered standard, it is possible that this +solemn threat, officially pronounced, would force them to reflect, if +indeed they are still at all capable of reflection. It is the only +expedient that remains to us and there is no time to be lost. With +certain adversaries the most barbarous threats are legitimate and +necessary, for these threats speak the only language which they can +understand. And our children must not one day be able to reproach us +with not having attempted everything—even that which is most +repugnant—to save the treasures which are theirs by right.</p> + + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span></p><hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="TO_SAVE_FOUR_CITIES" id="TO_SAVE_FOUR_CITIES"></a>TO SAVE FOUR CITIES</h2> + + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span></p><hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="IV" id="IV"></a>IV</h2> + +<h3>TO SAVE FOUR CITIES</h3> + + +<h4>1</h4> + +<p>First Louvain, Malines, Termonde, Lierre, Dixmude, Nieuport (and I am +speaking only of the disasters of Flanders); now Ypres is no more and +Furnes is half in ruins. By the side of the great Flemish cities, +Brussels, Antwerp, Ghent and Bruges, those vast and incomparable +living museums which have been watchfully preserved by a whole people, +a people above all others attached to its traditions, they formed a +constellation of little towns, delightful and hospitable, too little +known to travellers. Each of them wore its own expression, of peace, +pleasantness, innocent mirth, or meditation. Each possessed its +treasures, jealously guarded: its belfries, its churches, its canals, +its old bridges, its<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span> quiet convents, its ancient houses, which gave +it a special physiognomy, never to be forgotten by those who had +beheld it.</p> + +<p>But the indisputable queen of these beautiful forsaken cities was +Ypres, with its enormous market-place, bordered by little +dwelling-houses with stepped gables, and its prodigious +market-buildings, which occupied one whole side of the immense oblong. +This market-place haunted for ever the memory of those who had seen +it, were it but once, while waiting to change trains; it was so +unexpected, so magical, so dream-like almost, in its disproportion to +the rest of the town. While the ancient city, whose life had withdrawn +itself from century to century, was gradually shrinking all around it, +the Grand'Place itself remained an immovable, gigantic, magnificent +witness to the might and opulence of old, when Ypres was, with Ghent +and Bruges, one of the three queens of the western<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span> world, one of the +most strenuous centres of human industry and activity and the cradle +of our great liberties. Such as it was yesterday—alas, that I cannot +say, such as it is to-day!—this square, with the enormous but +unspeakably harmonious mass of those market-buildings, at once +powerful and graceful, wild, gloomy, proud, yet genial, was one of the +most wonderful and perfect spectacles that could be seen in any town +on this old earth of ours. While of a different order of architecture, +built of other elements and standing under sterner skies, it should +have been as precious to man, as sacred and as intangible as the +Piazza di San Marco at Venice, the Signoria at Florence or the Piazza +del Duomo at Pisa. It constituted a peerless specimen of art, which at +all times wrung a cry of admiration from the most indifferent, an +ornament which men hoped was imperishable, one of those things<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span> of +beauty which, in the words of the poet, are a joy forever.</p> + + +<h4>2</h4> + +<p>I cannot believe that it no longer exists; and yet in this horrible +war we have to believe everything and, above all, the worst. Now, +fatally and inevitably, it will be the turn of the Belfry of Bruges; +and then the tide of barbarians will rise against Ghent and Antwerp +and Brussels; and there will forthwith disappear one of those portions +of the world's surface in which was hoarded the greatest wealth of +beauty and of memories and of the stuff of history. We did what we +could to preserve it; we could do no more. The most heroic of armies +are powerless to prevent the bandits whom they are driving back from +murdering the women and children or from deliberately and uselessly +destroying all that they find along their path of retreat. There is +only<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span> one hope left us: the immediate and imperious intervention of +the neutral powers. It is towards them that we turn our tortured gaze. +Two great nations notably—Italy and the United States—hold in their +hands the fate of these last treasures, whose loss would one day be +reckoned among the heaviest and the most irreparable that have been +suffered in the course of long centuries of human civilization. They +can do what they will; it is time for them to do that which it is no +longer lawful to leave undone. By its frantic lies, the beast from +over the Rhine, standing at bay and in peril of death, shows plainly +enough the importance which it attaches to the opinion of the only +nations which the execration of all that lives and breathes have not +yet armed against it. It is afraid. It feels that all is crumbling +under foot, that it is being shunned and abandoned. It seeks in every +direction a glance that does not curse it. It must not, it shall not +find that glance.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span> It is not necessary to tell Italy what our +imperilled cities are worth; for Italy is preeminently the land of +noble cities.</p> + +<p>Our cause is her cause; she owes us her support. When a work of beauty +is destroyed, her own genius and her own eternal gods are outraged. As +for America, she more than any other country stands for the future. +She should think of the days that will follow after this war. When the +great peace descends upon the earth, let not the earth be found desert +and robbed of all its jewels. The places at which the earth is +beautiful because of centuries of effort, because of the successful +zeal and patience and genius of a race, are not so many. This corner +of Flanders, over which death now hovers, is one of those consecrated +spots. Were it to perish, men as yet unborn, men who at last, perhaps, +will achieve happiness, would lack memories and examples which nothing +could replace.</p> + + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span></p><hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="PRO_PATRIA_I" id="PRO_PATRIA_I"></a>PRO PATRIA: I</h2> + + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span></p><hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="V" id="V"></a>V</h2> + +<h3>PRO PATRIA: I<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a></h3> + + +<h4>1</h4> + +<p>I need not here recall the events that hurled Belgium into the depths +of distress most glorious where she is struggling to-day. She has been +punished as never nation was punished for doing her duty as never +nation did before. She saved the world while knowing that she could +not be saved. She saved it by flinging herself in the path of the +oncoming barbarians, by allowing herself to be trampled to death in +order to give the defenders of justice time, not to rescue her, for +she was well aware that rescue could not come in time, but to collect +the forces needed to save our Latin civilization from the greatest +danger<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span> that has ever threatened it. She has thus done this +civilization, which is the only one whereunder the majority of men are +willing or able to live, a service exactly similar to that which +Greece, at the time of the great Asiatic invasions, rendered to the +mother of this civilization. But, while the service is similar, the +act surpasses all comparison. We may ransack history in vain for aught +to approach it in grandeur. The magnificent sacrifice at Thermopylæ, +which is perhaps the noblest action in the annals of war, is illumined +with an equally heroic but less ideal light, for it was less +disinterested and more material. Leonidas and his three hundred +Spartans were in fact defending their homes, their wives, their +children, all the realities which they had left behind them. King +Albert and his Belgians, on the other hand, knew full well that, in +barring the invader's road, they were inevitably sacrificing their +homes,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span> their wives and their children. Unlike the heroes of Sparta, +instead of possessing an imperative and vital interest in fighting, +they had everything to gain by not fighting and nothing to lose—save +honour. In the one scale were fire and the sword, ruin, massacre, the +infinite disaster which we see; in the other was that little word +honour, which also represents infinite things, but things which we do +not see, or which we must be very pure and very great to see quite +clearly. It has happened now and again in history that a man standing +higher than his fellows perceives what this word represents and +sacrifices his life and the life of those whom he loves to what he +perceives; and we have not without reason devoted to such men a sort +of cult that places them almost on a level with the gods. But what had +never yet happened—and I say this without fear of contradiction from +whosoever cares to search the memory of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span> man—is that a whole people, +great and small, rich and poor, learned and ignorant, deliberately +immolated itself thus for the sake of an unseen thing.</p> + + +<h4>2</h4> + +<p>And observe that we are not discussing one of those heroic resolutions +which are taken in a moment of enthusiasm, when man easily surpasses +himself, and which have not to be maintained when, forgetting his +intoxication, he lapses on the morrow to the dead level of his +everyday life. We are concerned with a resolution that has had to be +taken and maintained every morning, for now nearly four months, in the +midst of daily increasing distress and disaster. And not only has this +resolution not wavered by a hair's breadth, but it grows as steadily +as the national misfortune; and to-day, when this misfortune is +reaching its full, the national resolution is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span> likewise attaining its +zenith. I have seen many of my refugee fellow-countrymen: some used to +be rich and had lost their all; others were poor before the war and +now no longer owned even what the poorest own. I have received many +letters from every part of Europe where duty's exiles had sought a +brief instant of repose. In them there was lamentation, as was only +too natural, but not a reproach, not a regret, not a word of +recrimination. I did not once come upon that hopeless but excusable +cry which, one would think, might so easily have sprung from +despairing lips:</p> + +<p>"If our king had not done what he did, we should not be suffering what +we are suffering to-day."</p> + +<p>The idea does not even occur to them. It is as though this thought +were not of those which can live in that atmosphere purified by +misfortune. They are not resigned, for to be resigned means to +renounce<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span> the strife, no longer to keep up one's courage. They are +proud and happy in their distress. They have a vague feeling that this +distress will regenerate them after the manner of a baptism of faith +and glory and ennoble them for all time in the remembrance of men. An +unexpected breath, coming from the secret reserves of the human race +and from the summits of the human heart, has suddenly passed over +their lives and given them a single soul, formed of the same heroic +substance as that of their great king.</p> + + +<h4>3</h4> + +<p>They have done what had never before been done; and it is to be hoped +for the happiness of mankind that no nation will ever again be called +upon for a like sacrifice. But this wonderful example will not be +lost, even though there be no longer any occasion to imitate it. At a +time when<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span> the universal conscience seemed about to bend under the +weight of long prosperity and selfish materialism, suddenly it raised +by several degrees what we may term the political morality of the +world and lifted it all at once to a height which it had not yet +reached and from which it will never again be able to descend, for +there are actions so glorious, actions which fill so great a place in +our memory, that they found a sort of new religion and definitely fix +the limits of the human conscience and of human loyalty and courage.</p> + +<p>They have really, as I have already said and as history will one day +establish with greater eloquence and authority than mine, they have +really saved Latin civilization. They had stood for centuries at the +junction of two powerful and hostile forms of culture. They had to +choose and they did not hesitate. Their choice was all the more +significant, all the more instructive,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span> inasmuch as none was so well +qualified as they to choose with a full knowledge of what they were +doing. You are all aware that more than half of Belgium is of Teutonic +stock. She was therefore, thanks to her racial affinities, better able +than any other to understand the culture that was being offered her, +together with the imputation of dishonour which it included. She +understood it so well that she rejected it with an outbreak of horror +and disgust unparalleled in violence, spontaneous, unanimous and +irresistible, thus pronouncing a verdict from which there was no +appeal and giving the world a peremptory lesson sealed with every drop +of her blood.</p> + + +<h4>4</h4> + +<p>But to-day she is at the end of her resources. She has exhausted not +her courage but her strength. She has paid with all that she possesses +for the immense <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span>service which she has rendered to mankind. Thousands +and thousands of her children are dead; all her riches have perished; +almost all her historic memories, which were her pride and her +delight, almost all her artistic treasures, which were numbered among +the fairest in this world, are destroyed for ever. She is nothing more +than a desert whence stand out, more or less intact, four great towns +alone, four towns which the Rhenish hordes, for whom the epithet of +barbarians is in point of fact too honourable, appear to have spared +only so that they may keep back one last and monstrous revenge for the +day of the inevitable rout. It is certain that Antwerp, Ghent, Bruges +and Brussels are doomed beyond recall. In particular, the admirable +Grand'Place, the Hôtel de Ville and the Cathedral at Brussels are, I +know, undermined: I repeat, I know it from private and trustworthy +testimony against which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span> no denial can prevail. A spark will be enough +to turn one of the recognized marvels of Europe into a heap of ruins +like those of Ypres, Malines and Louvain. Soon after—for, short of +immediate intervention, the disaster is as certain as though it were +already accomplished—Bruges, Antwerp and Ghent will suffer the same +fate; and in a moment, as I was saying the other day, there will +vanish from sight one of the corners of this earth in which the +greatest store of memories, of historic matter and artistic beauties +had been accumulated.</p> + + +<h4>5</h4> + +<p>The time has come to end this foolery! The time has come for +everything that draws breath to rise up against these systematic, +insane and stupid acts of destruction, perpetrated without any +military excuse or strategic object. The reason why we are at last +uttering a great cry of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span>distress, we who are above all a silent +people, the reason why we turn to your mighty and noble country is +that Italy is to-day the only European power that is still in a +position to stop the unchained brute on the brink of his crime. You +are ready. You have but to stretch out a hand to save us. We have not +come to beg for our lives: these no longer count with us and we have +already offered them up. But, in the name of the last beautiful things +that the barbarians have left us, we come with our prayers to the land +of all beautiful things. It must not be, it shall not be that, on the +day when at last we return, not to our homes, for most of these are +destroyed, but to our native soil, that soil is so laid waste as to +have become an unrecognizable desert. You know better than any others +what memories mean, what masterpieces mean to a nation, for your +country is covered with memories and masterpieces. It<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span> is also the +land of justice and the cradle of the law, which is simply justice +that has taken cognizance of itself. On this account, Italy owes us +justice. And she owes it to herself to put a stop to the greatest +iniquity in the annals of history, for not to put a stop to it when +one has the power is almost tantamount to taking part in it. It is for +Italy as much as for France that we have suffered. She is the source, +she is the very mother of the ideal for which we have fought and for +which the last of our soldiers are still fighting in the last of our +trenches.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> Delivered at the Scala Theatre, Milan, 30 November, +1914.</p></div> +</div> + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span></p><hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="HEROISM" id="HEROISM"></a>HEROISM</h2> + + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span></p><hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="VI" id="VI"></a>VI</h2> + +<h3>HEROISM</h3> + + +<h4>1</h4> + +<p>One of the consoling surprises of this war is the unlooked-for and, so +to speak, universal heroism which it has revealed among all the +nations taking part in it.</p> + +<p>We were rather inclined to believe that courage, physical and moral +fortitude, self-denial, stoicism, the renunciation of every sort of +comfort, the faculty of self-sacrifice and the power of facing death +belonged only to the more primitive, the less happy, the less +intelligent nations, to the nations least capable of reasoning, of +appreciating danger and of picturing in their imagination the dreadful +abyss that separates this life from the life unknown. We were even<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span> +almost persuaded that war would one day cease for lack of soldiers, +that is to say, of men foolish enough or unhappy enough to risk the +only absolute realities—health, physical comfort, an unimpaired body +and, above all, life, the greatest of earthly possessions—for the +sake of an ideal which, like all ideals, is more or less invisible.</p> + +<p>And this argument seemed the more natural and convincing because, as +existence grew gentler and men's nerves more sensitive, the means of +destruction by war showed themselves more cruel, ruthless and +irresistible. It seemed more and more probable that no man would ever +again endure the infernal horrors of a battlefield and that, after the +first slaughter, the opposing armies, officers and men alike, all +seized with insuppressible panic, would turn their backs upon one +another, in simultaneous, supernatural affright, and flee from +unearthly terrors exceeding the most<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span> monstrous anticipations of those +who had let them loose.</p> + + +<h4>2</h4> + +<p>To our great astonishment the very opposite is now proclaimed.</p> + +<p>We realize with amazement that until to-day we had but an incomplete +and inaccurate conception of man's courage. We looked upon it as an +exceptional virtue and one which is the more admired as being also the +rarer the farther we go back in history. Remember, for instance, +Homer's heroes, the ancestors of all the heroes of our day. Study them +closely. These models of antiquity, the first professors, the first +masters of bravery, are not really very brave. They have a wholesome +dread of being hit or wounded and an ingenuous and manifest fear of +death. Their mighty conflicts are declamatory and decorative but not +so very bloody; they inflict more noise than pain upon their +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span>adversaries, they deliver many more words than blows. Their defensive +weapons—and this is characteristic—are greatly superior to their +arms of offence; and death is an unusual, unforeseen and almost +indecorous event which throws the ranks into disorder and most often +puts a stop to the combat or provokes a headlong flight that seems +quite natural. As for the wounds, these are enumerated and described, +sung and deplored as so many remarkable phenomena. On the other hand, +the most discreditable routs, the most shameful panics are frequent; +and the old poet relates them, without condemning them, as ordinary +incidents to be ascribed to the gods and inevitable in any warfare.</p> + +<p>This kind of courage is that of all antiquity, more or less. We will +not linger over it, nor delay to consider the battles of the Middle +Ages or the <a name="Renascence" id="Renascence"></a>Renascence, in which the fiercest hand-to-hand encounters<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span> +of the mercenaries often left not more than half-a-dozen victims on +the field. Let us rather come straight to the great wars of the +Empire. Here the courage displayed begins to resemble our own, but +with notable differences. In the first place, those concerned were +solely professionals. We see not a whole nation fighting, but a +delegation, a martial selection, which, it is true, becomes gradually +more extensive, but never, as in our time, embraces every man between +eighteen and fifty years of age capable of shouldering a weapon. +Again—and above all—every war was reduced to two or three pitched +battles, that is to say, two or three culminating moments; immense +efforts, but efforts of a few hours, or a day at most, towards which +the combatants directed all the vigour and all the heroism accumulated +during long weeks or months of preparation and waiting. Afterwards, +whether the result was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span> victory or defeat, the fighting was over; +relaxation, respite and rest followed; men went back to their homes. +Destiny must not be defied more than once; and they knew that in the +most terrible affray the chances of escaping death were as twenty to +one.</p> + + +<h4>3</h4> + +<p>Nowadays, everything is changed; and death itself is no longer what it +was. Formerly, you looked it in the face, you knew whence it came and +who sent it to you. It had a dreadful aspect, but one that remained +human. Its ways were not unknown: its long spells of sleep, its brief +awakenings, its bad days and dangerous hours. At present, to all these +horrors it adds the great, intolerable fear of mystery. It no longer +has any aspect, no longer has habits or spells of sleep and it is +never still. It is always ready, always on the watch, everywhere +present, scattered, intangible<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span> and dense, stealthy and cowardly, +diffuse, all-encompassing, innumerous, looming at every point of the +horizon, rising from the waters and falling from the skies, +indefatigable, inevitable, filling the whole of space and time for +days, weeks and months without a minute's lull, without a second's +intermission. Men live, move and sleep in the meshes of its fatal web. +They know that the least step to the right or left, a head bowed or +lifted, a body bent or upright is seen by its eyes and draws its +thunder.</p> + +<p>Hitherto we had no example of this preponderance of the destructive +forces. We should never have believed that man's nerves could resist +so great a trial. The nerves of the bravest man are tempered to face +death for the space of a second, but not to live in the hourly +expectation of death and nothing else. Heroism was once a sharp and +rugged peak, reached for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span> a moment but soon quitted, for +mountain-peaks are not inhabitable. To-day it is a boundless plain, as +uninhabitable as the peaks; but we are not permitted to descend from +it. And so, at the very moment when man appeared most exhausted and +enervated by the comforts and vices of civilization, at the moment +when he was happiest and therefore most selfish, when, possessing the +minimum of faith and vainly seeking a new ideal, he seemed least +capable of sacrificing himself for an idea of any kind, he finds +himself suddenly confronted with an unprecedented danger, which he is +almost certain that the most heroic nations of history would not have +faced nor even dreamed of facing, whereas he does not even dream that +it is possible to do aught but face it. And let it not be said that we +had no choice, that the danger and the struggle were thrust upon us, +that we had to defend ourselves or die and that in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span> such cases there +are no cowards. It is not true: there was, there always has been, +there still is a choice.</p> + + +<h4>4</h4> + +<p>It is not man's life that is at stake, but the idea which he forms of +the honour, the happiness and the duties of his life. To save his life +he had but to submit to the enemy; the invader would not have +exterminated him. You cannot exterminate a great people; it is not +even possible to enslave it seriously or to inflict great sorrow upon +it for long. He had nothing to be afraid of except disgrace. He did +not so much as see the infamous temptation appear above the horizon of +his most instinctive fears; he does not even suspect that it is able +to exist; and he will never perceive it, whatever sacrifices may yet +await him. We are not, therefore, speaking of a heroism that would be +but the last<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span> resource of despair, the heroism of the animal driven to +bay and fighting blindly to delay death's coming for a moment. No, it +is heroism freely donned, deliberately and unanimously hailed, heroism +on behalf of an idea and a sentiment, in other words, heroism in its +clearest, purest and most virginal form, a disinterested and +whole-hearted sacrifice for that which men regard as their duty to +themselves, to their kith and kin, to mankind and to the future. If +life and personal safety were more precious than the idea of honour, +of patriotism and of fidelity to tradition and the race, there was, I +repeat, and there is still a choice to be made; and never perhaps in +any war was the choice easier, for never did men feel more free, never +indeed were they more free to choose.</p> + +<p>But this choice, as I have said, did not dare show its faintest shadow +on the lowest horizons of even the most ignoble <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span>consciences. Are you +quite sure that, in other times which we think better and more +virtuous than our own, men would not have seen it, would not have +spoken of it? Can you find a nation, even among the greatest, which, +after six months of a war compared with which all other wars seem +child's-play, of a war which threatens and uses up all that nation's +life and all its possessions, can you find, I say, in history, not an +instance—for there is no instance—but some similar case which allows +you to presume that the nation would not have faltered, would not at +least, were it but for a second, have looked down and cast its eyes +upon an inglorious peace?</p> + + +<h4>5</h4> + +<p>Nevertheless, they seemed much stronger than we are, all those who +came before us. They were rude, austere, much closer to nature, poor +and often unhappy. They<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span> had a simpler and a more rigid code of +thought; they had the habit of physical suffering, of hardship and of +death. But I do not believe that any one dares contend that these men +would have done what our soldiers are now doing, that they would have +endured what is being endured all around us. Are we not entitled to +conclude from this that civilization, contrary to what was feared, so +far from enervating, depraving, weakening, lowering and dwarfing man, +elevates him, purifies him, strengthens him, ennobles him, makes him +capable of acts of sacrifice, generosity and courage which he did not +know before? The fact is that civilization, even when it seems to +entail corruption, brings intelligence with it and that intelligence, +in days of trial, stands for potential pride, nobility and heroism. +That, as I said in the beginning, is the unexpected and consoling +revelation of this horrible war: we can rely<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span> on man implicitly, place +the greatest trust in him, nor fear lest, in laying aside his +primitive brutality, he should lose his manly qualities. The greater +his progress in the conquest of nature and the greater his apparent +attachment to material welfare, the more does he become capable, +nevertheless, unconsciously, deep down in the best part of him, of +self-detachment and of self-sacrifice for the common safety and the +more does he understand that he is nothing when he compares himself +with the eternal life of his forbears and his children.</p> + +<p>It was so great a trial that we dared not, before this war, have +contemplated it. The future of the human race was at stake; and the +magnificent response that comes to us from every side reassures us +fully as to the issue of other struggles, more formidable still, which +no doubt await us when it will be a question no longer of fighting our +fellow-men, but rather of facing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span> the more powerful and cruel of the +great mysterious enemies that nature holds in reserve against us. If +it be true, as I believe, that humanity is worth just as much as the +sum total of latent heroism which it contains, then we may declare +that humanity was never stronger nor more exemplary than now and that +it is at this moment reaching one of its highest points and capable of +braving everything and hoping everything. And it is for this reason +that, despite our present sadness, we are entitled to congratulate +ourselves and to rejoice.</p> + + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span></p><hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="PRO_PATRIA_II" id="PRO_PATRIA_II"></a>PRO PATRIA: II</h2> + + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span></p><hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="VII" id="VII"></a>VII</h2> + +<h3>PRO PATRIA: II<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a></h3> + + +<h4>1</h4> + +<p>More than three months ago, I was in one of the grandest of your +cities, a city that welcomed in a manner which I shall never forget +the cause which I had come among you to represent. I was there, as I +told my hearers at the time, in the name of the last remnants of +beauty that the barbarians had left us, to plead with the land of +every kind of beauty. Those threatened beauties, our only cities yet +intact, the treasures and sanctuaries of our whole past and of all our +race, are still reeling on the brink of the same abyss and, failing a +miracle which we dare not hope for, they will suffer the fate of +Ypres,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span> Louvain, Malines, Termonde, Dixmude and so many other less +illustrious victims. The danger in which they stand has no doubt +aroused the indignation of the civilized world; but not a hand has +armed itself to defend them. I blame no one; I reproach no one; the +morality of the nations is a virtue that has not yet emerged from the +state of infancy; and fortunately, by the hazard of war, it is not yet +too late to save four innocent cities.</p> + +<p>To-day I have not come to speak of monuments, of historical relics, +nor even of the wrongs committed, of the violation of all the rights +and laws of warfare and every international convention, of +incendiarism, pillage and massacre; I have come simply to utter before +you the last distressful cry of a dying nation.</p> + +<p>At this moment a tragedy is being enacted in Belgium such as has no +precedent in the history of civilized peoples, nor<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span> even in that of +the barbarians, for the barbarians, when committing their most +stupendous crimes, lacked the infernal deliberation and the +scientific, all-powerful means of working evil which to-day are in the +hands of those who profit by the resources and benefits of +civilization only to turn them against it and to seek the annihilation +of all its noblest and most generous characteristics. The despairing +rumours of this tragedy come to us only through the chinks of that +ensanguined well which isolates it from the rest of the world. Nothing +reaches our ears but the lies of the enemy. In reality, the whole of +Belgium is one huge Prussian prison, where every cry is cruelly and +methodically stifled and where no voices are heard save those of the +gaolers. Only now and again, after a thousand adventures, despite a +thousand perils, a letter from some kinsman or captive friend arrives +from<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span> the depths of that great living cemetery, bringing us a gleam of +authentic truth.</p> + + +<h4>2</h4> + +<p>You are as familiar with this truth as I am. At the moment when her +soil was invaded, Belgium numbered seven million seven hundred +thousand inhabitants. It is estimated that between two hundred and +fifty and three hundred thousand have perished in battle or massacre, +or as the result of misery and privation; and I am not speaking of the +infant children, the sacrifice of whom, owing to the dearth of milk, +has, it appears, been frightful. Five or six hundred thousand +unfortunates have fled to Holland, France or England. There remain +therefore in the country nearly seven million inhabitants; and more +than half of these seven millions are living almost exclusively on +American charity.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span> In what is above all an industrial country, +producing normally, in time of peace, less than a third part of the +wheat necessary for home consumption, the enemy has systematically +requisitioned everything, carried off everything, for the upkeep of +his armies, and has sent into Germany what he could not consume on the +spot. The result of so monstrous a proceeding may readily be divined: +on all that soil, once so happy and so rich, to-day taxed and pillaged +and pillaged again, ravaged and devastated by fire and the sword, +there is nothing left. And the situation of suffering Belgium is so +cruelly paradoxical that her best friends, her dearest allies, even +those whom she has saved, are powerless to succour her. Isolated as +she is from the rest of the world, she would have starved even though +nothing had been taken from her. Now she has been despoiled of all +that she possessed, while France and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span>England can send her neither +money nor provisions, for they would fall into the hands of those +engaged in torturing her, so much so that every attempt on their part +to alleviate her sufferings would but retard her deliverance still +further. Did history ever witness a more poignant, a more desperate +tragedy? It is a fact that in the midst of this war we are constantly +finding ourselves confronted with events such as history hitherto has +never beheld. A people resembling an enormous beast of prey, in order +to punish a loyalty and heroism which, if it retained the slightest +notion of justice and injustice, the smallest sense of human dignity +and honour, it ought to worship on its knees: this vast predatory race +stealthily resolved to exterminate an inoffensive little nation whose +soul it felt was too great to be enslaved or reduced to the semblance +of its conqueror's. It was on the point of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span>succeeding, amid the +silence, the impotence, or the terror of the world, when from beyond +the Atlantic a generous nation took that heroic little people under +its protection. It understood that what was involved was not merely an +act of justice and elementary pity, but also and more particularly a +higher duty towards the morality and the eternal conscience of +mankind. Thanks to this great nation's intervention, it will not be +said, in the days to come, that justice, loyalty, honesty and heroism +are no more than dangerous illusions and a fool's bargain, or that +evil must necessarily, at all times and places, conquer whenever it is +backed by force, or that the only reward which duty magnificently done +may hope to receive on this earth is every manner of grief and +disaster, ending in death by starvation. So immense and triumphant an +example of <a name="iniquity" id="iniquity"></a>iniquity would strike the ideals of mankind<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span> a blow from +which they would not recover for centuries.</p> + + +<h4>3</h4> + +<p>But already this help is becoming exhausted; it cannot be indefinitely +prolonged; and very soon it will be insufficient. It is, moreover, at +the mercy of the slightest diplomatic or political complication; and +its failure will be irreparable. It will mean utter famine, unexampled +extermination, which till the end of the world will cry to heaven for +vengeance. It is no longer a question of weeks or months, but one of +days. That is where we stand; and these are the last hours granted by +destiny to an inactive Europe wherein to expunge the shame of her +indifference.</p> + +<p>These hours belong almost solely to you, for others have not your +power. Whatever may happen, however long you may postpone the issue, +one of these days you<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span> will be obliged to join in the fray. Everything +advises, everything orders you to do so; and I can see nothing on the +side of honour, justice or humanity, on the side of the will of the +centuries or the human race, nor even on the side of prudence and +self-interest, that allows you to avoid it. Is it not better and more +worthy of yourselves than all the subtleties, plottings and petty +bargainings of diplomacy?</p> + +<p>The one hour, the peremptory hour has struck when your aid can break +the balance between the powers of good and evil which, for more than +two hundred days, have kept the future of Europe hanging over the +abyss.</p> + +<p>Fate has granted you the magnificent boon, the all but divine +privilege, of saving from the most horrible of deaths four or five +millions of innocent human beings, four or five millions of martyrs +who have performed the finest action that a people could<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span> perform and +who are perishing because they defended the ideals which your fathers +taught them. I know that we are faced by duties which until to-day had +never entered into the morality of States; for it is but too true that +this morality still lags a thousand miles behind that of the meanest +peasant. But, if such a thing has never yet been done, it is all the +more glorious to be the first to do it, to make an effort that will +raise the life of nations to a level which the life of the individual +has long since attained. And no people is better qualified than the +Italian to make this effort which the world and the future are +awaiting as a deliverance.</p> + +<p>But I will say no more. I have been reproached for speaking of matters +which, as a foreigner, I ought not to discuss. I believed that these +great questions of humanity interested the whole human race. Perhaps I +was wrong. I will respect the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span> profound silence in which great actions +are developed; and I leave to the meditation of your hearts that which +I am constrained to leave unsaid. They will tell you very much better +than I could all that I had to say to you.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> Delivered in Rome, before the Associazione della Stampa, +13 March, 1915.</p></div> +</div> + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span></p><hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="PRO_PATRIA_III" id="PRO_PATRIA_III"></a>PRO PATRIA: III</h2> + + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span></p><hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="VIII" id="VIII"></a>VIII</h2> + +<h3>PRO PATRIA: III<a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a></h3> + + +<h4>1</h4> + +<p>Although nothing entitles me to the honour of addressing you in the +name of my refugee countrymen, nevertheless it is only fitting, since +a kindly insistence brings me here, that I should in the first place +give thanks to England for the manner in which she welcomed them in +their distress. I am but a voice in the crowd; and, if my words exceed +the limits of this hall and lend to him who utters them an authority +which he himself does not possess, it is only because they are filled +with unbounded gratitude.</p> + +<p>In this horrible war, whose stakes are the salvation and the future of +mankind,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span> let us first of all salute our wonderful sister, France, who +is supporting the heaviest burden and who, for more than eleven +months, having broken its first and most formidable onslaught, has +been struggling, foot by foot, at closest quarters, without faltering, +without remission, with an heroic smile, against the most formidable +organization of pillage, massacre and devastation that the world or +hell itself has seen since man first learnt the history of the planet +on which he lives. We have here a revelation of qualities and virtues +surpassing all that we expected from a nation which nevertheless had +accustomed us to expect of her all that goes to make the beauty and +the glory of humanity. One must reside in France, as I have done for +many years, to understand and admire as it deserves the incomparable +lesson in courage, abnegation, firmness, determination, coolness, +conscious dignity, self-mastery,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span> good-humour, chivalrous generosity +and utter charity and self-sacrifice which this great and noble +people, which has civilized more than half the globe, is at the +present moment teaching the civilized world.</p> + +<p>Let us also salute boundless Russia, with her wonderful soldiers, +innocent and ingenuous as the saints of old, ignorant of fear as +children who do not yet know the meaning of death. Yonder, along a +formidable front running from the Baltic to the Black Sea, with silent +multitudinous heroism, amid defeats which are but victories delayed, +she is beginning the great work of our deliverance, Lastly let us +greet Servia, small but prodigious, whom we must one day place on the +summit of that monument of glory which Europe will raise to-morrow to +the memory of those who have freed her from her chains.</p> + +<p>So much for them. They have a right<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span> to all our gratitude, to all our +admiration. They are doing magnificently all that had to be done. But +they occupy a place apart in duty's splendid hierarchy. They are the +protagonists of direct, material, tangible, undeniable, inevitable +duty. This war is their war. If they would not accept the worst of +disgraces, if they were not prepared to suffer servitude, massacre, +ruin and famine, they had to undertake it; they could not do +otherwise. They were attacked by the born enemy, the irreducible and +absolute enemy, of whom they knew enough to understand that they had +nothing to expect from him but total and unremitting disaster. It was +a question of their continued existence in this world. They had no +choice; they had to defend themselves; and any other nation in their +place would have done the same, only there are few who would have done +it with the same spirit of self-abnegation, the same devotion,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span> the +same perseverance, the same loyalty and the same smiling courage.</p> + + +<h4>2</h4> + +<p>But for us Belgians—and we may say as much for you English—it was +not a question of this kind of duty. The horrible drama did not +concern us. It demanded only the right to pass us by without touching +us; and, far from doing us any harm, it would have flooded us with the +unclaimed riches which armies on the march drag in their wake. We +Belgians in particular, peaceable, hospitable, inoffensive and almost +unarmed, should, by the very treaties which assured our existence, +have remained complete strangers to this war. To be sure, we loved +France, because we knew her as well as we knew ourselves and because +she makes herself beloved by all who know her. But we entertained no +hatred of Germany. It is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span> true that, in spite of the virtues which we +believed her to possess but which were merely the mask of a spy, our +hearts barely responded to her obsequiously treacherous advances. For +the German, of all the inhabitants of our planet, has this one and +singular peculiarity, that he arouses in us, from the onset, a +profound, instinctive, intuitive feeling of antipathy. But, even so +and wherever our preferences may have lain, our treaties, our pledged +word, the very reason of our existence, all forbade us to take part in +the conflict. Then came the incredible ultimatum, the monstrous demand +of which you know, which gave us twelve hours to choose between ruin +and death or dishonour. As you also know, we did not need twelve hours +to make our choice. This choice was no more than a cry of indignation +and resolution, spontaneous, fierce and irresistible. We did not stay +for a moment to ponder the extenuating<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span> circumstances which our +weakness might have invoked. We did not for a moment consider the +absolution which history would have granted us later, on realizing +that a conflict between forces so completely disproportioned was +futile, that we must inevitably be crushed, massacred and annihilated +and that the sacrifice of a little people in its entirety could +prevent nothing, could barely cause delay and would have no weight in +the immense balance into which the world's destinies were about to be +flung. There was no question of all this; we saw one thing only: our +plighted word. For that word we must die; and since then we have been +dying. Trace the course of history as far back as you will; question +the nations of the earth; then name those who have done or who would +have done what we did. How many will you find? I am not judging those +whom I pass over in silence, for to do so would<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span> be to enter into the +secret of men's hearts which I have not the right to violate; but in +any case there is one which I can name aloud, without fear of being +mistaken; and that is the British nation. This people too entered into +the conflict, not through interest or necessity or inherited hatred, +but simply for a matter of honour. It has not suffered what we have +suffered; it has not risked what we have risked, which is all that we +possessed beneath the arch of heaven; but it owes this immunity only +to outside circumstances. The principle and the quality of the act are +the same. We stand on the same plane, one step higher than the other +combatants. While the others are the soldiers of necessity, we are the +volunteers of honour; and, without detracting from their merits, this +title adds to ours all that a pure and disinterested idea adds to the +noblest acts of courage. There is not a doubt but that in our place<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span> +you would have done precisely what we did. You would have done it with +the same simplicity, the same calm and confident ardour, the same good +faith. You would have thrown yourselves into the breach as +whole-heartedly, with the same scorn of useless phrases and the same +stubborn conscientiousness. And the reason why I do not shrink from +singing in your presence the praises of what we have done is that +these praises also affect yourselves, who would not have hesitated to +do the selfsame things.</p> + + +<h4>3</h4> + +<p>In short, we have both the same conception of honour; and a like idea +must needs bear like fruits. In your eyes as in ours, a formal +promise, a word once given is the most sacred thing that can pass +between man and man. Now far more than the valour of a man—because it +rises to much<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span> greater heights and extends to much greater +distances—the valour of a people depends upon the conception of its +honour which that people holds and, above all, upon the sacrifices +which it is capable of making for the sake of that honour. We may +differ upon all the other ideas that guide the actions of mankind, +notably upon the religious idea; but those who do not agree on this +one point are unworthy of the name of man. It represents the purest +flame, the ever more ardent focus of all human dignity and virtue.</p> + +<p>You have sacrificed yourselves wholly to this idea; and, in the name +of this idea, which is as vital and as powerful in your souls as in +ours, you came to our aid, as we knew that you would come, for we +counted on you as surely as you counted on us. You are ready to make +the same sacrifices; and already you are proudly supporting the +heaviest of sacrifices. Thus,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span> in this stupendous struggle, we are +united by bonds even more fraternal than those which bind the other +Allies. Our union is more lofty and more generous, for it is based +wholly upon the noblest thoughts and feelings that can inspire the +heart. And this union, which is marked by a mutual confidence and +affection that grow hourly deeper and wider, is helping us both to go +even beyond our duty.</p> + +<p>For we have gone beyond it; and we are exceeding it daily. We have +done and are doing far more than we were bound to do. It was for us +Belgians to resist, loyally, vigorously, to the utmost of our +strength, as we had promised. But the most sensitive honour would have +allowed us to lay down our arms after the immense and heroic effort of +the first few days and to trust to the victor's clemency when he +recognized that we were beaten. Nothing compelled us to immolate +ourselves entirely, to <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span>surrender, in succession, as a burnt-offering +to our ideals, all that we possessed on earth and to continue the +struggle after we were crushed, even in the last torments of +starvation, which to-day holds three millions of us in its grip. +Nothing compelled us to this course, other than the increasingly lofty +ideal of duty held by those who began by putting it into practice and +are now living in its fulfilment.</p> + +<p>As for you English, you had to come to our assistance, that is to say, +to send us the troops which you had ready under arms; but nothing +compelled you either, after the first useless engagements, to devote +yourselves with unparalleled ardour and self-sacrifice, to hurl into +the mortal and stupendous battle the whole of your youth, the fairest +upon earth, and all your riches, the most prodigious in this world, +nor to conjure up from your soil, by a miracle which was thought +impossible, in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span> fewer months than the years that would have seemed +needful, the most gallant, determined and tenacious armies that have +yet been marshalled in this war. Nothing compelled you, save the +spirit of emulation, the same mad love of duty, the same passion for +justice, the same idolatry of the given word which, that it may be +sure of doing all that it promised, performs far more than it would +have dared to promise.</p> + + +<h4>4</h4> + +<p>Now, during the last few weeks, a new combatant has entered the lists, +one who occupies a place quite apart in the sacred hierarchy of duty +and honour and in the moral history of this war. I speak of Italy; and +I pay her the tribute of homage which is her due and which I well know +that you will render with me, for you of all nations are qualified to +do so.</p> + +<p>Italy had no treaty except with our <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span>enemies. Her first act of +justice, when confronted with an iniquitous aggression, was to discard +this treaty, which was about to draw her into a crime which she had +the courage to judge and condemn from the outset, while her former +allies were still in the full flush of a might that seemed unshakable. +After this verdict, which was worthy of the land where justice first +saw the light, she found herself free; she now owed no obligations to +any one. There was nothing left to compel her to rush into this +carnage, which she could contemplate calmly from the vantage of her +delightful cities; and she had only to wait till the twelfth hour to +gather its first fruits. There was no longer any compact, any written +bond, signed by the hands of kings or peoples, that could involve her +destiny. But now, at the spectacle, unforeseen and daily more +abominable and disconcerting, of the barbarian invasion, words +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span>half-effaced and secret treaties written by unknown hands on the +souls and consciences of all men revealed themselves and slowly +gathered life and radiance. To some extent I was a witness of these +things; and I was able, so to speak, to follow with my eyes the +awakening and the irresistible promulgation of those great and +mysterious laws of justice, pity and love which are higher and more +imperishable than all those which we have engraved in marble or +bronze. With the increase of the crimes, the power of these laws +increased and extended. We may regard the intervention of Italy in +many ways. Like every human action and, above all, like every +political action, it is due to a thousand causes, many of which are +trifling. Among them we may see the legitimate hatred and the eternal +resentment felt towards an hereditary enemy. We may discover an +interested intention to take part, without<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span> too much risk, in a +victory already certain and in its previously allotted spoils. We may +see in it anything that we please: the resolves of men contain factors +of all kinds; but we must pity those who are able to consider none but +the meaner sides of the matter, for these are the only sides which +never count and which are always deceptive. To find the real and +lasting truth, we must learn to view the great masses and the great +feelings of mankind from above. It is in them and in their great and +simple movements that the will of the soul and of destiny is asserted, +for these two form the eternal substance of a people. And, in the +present case, the movement of the great masses and the great feelings +of the people took the form of an immense impulse of sympathy and +indignation, which gradually increased, penetrating farther and +farther into the popular strata and gathering volume as it +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span>progressed, until it urged a whole nation to assume the burden of a +war which it knew to be crushing and merciless, a war which each of +those who called for it knew to be a war which he himself must wage, +with his own hands, with his own body, a war which would wrest him +from the pleasant ways of peace, from his labours and his comforts, +which would weigh terribly upon all those whom he loved, which would +expose him for weeks, perhaps for months, to incredible sufferings and +which meant almost certain death to a third or a half of those who +demanded the right to brave it. And all this, I repeat, occurred +without any material necessity, from no other motive than a fine sense +of honour and a magnificent surge of admiration and pity for a small +foreign nation that was being unjustly martyred. We cannot repeat it +too often: here, as in the case of the sacrifice which Belgium<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span> and +England offered to the ideal of honour, is a new and unprecedented +fact in history.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> Delivered in London, at the Queen's Hall, 7 July, 1915.</p></div> +</div> + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span></p><hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="BELGIUMS_FLAG_DAY" id="BELGIUMS_FLAG_DAY"></a>BELGIUM'S FLAG DAY</h2> + + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span></p><hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="IX" id="IX"></a>IX</h2> + +<h3>BELGIUM'S FLAG DAY</h3> + + +<h4>1</h4> + +<p>To-day our flag will quiver in every French hand as a symbol of love +and gratitude. This day should be a day of hope and glory for all +Belgium.</p> + +<p>Let us forget for a moment our terrible distress; let us forget our +plains and meadows, the fairest and most fertile in Europe, now +ravaged to such a degree that the utmost that one can say is powerless +to give any idea of a desolation which seems irremediable. Let us +forget—if to forget them be possible—the women, the children, the +old men, peaceable and innocent, who have been massacred in their +thousands, the tale of whom will amaze the world when once the grim +barrier is broken behind which so many secret <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span>horrors are being +committed. Let us forget those who are dying of hunger in our country, +a land without harvests and without homes, a land methodically taxed, +pillaged and crushed until it is drained of the last drop of its +life-blood. Let us forget those remnants of our people who are +scattered hither and thither, who have trodden the path of exile, who +are living on public charity, which, though it show itself full of +brotherhood and affection, is yet so oppressive to those supremely +industrious hands, which had never known the grievous burden of alms. +Let us forget even those last of our cities to be menaced, the +fairest, the proudest, the most beloved of our cities, which +constitute the very face of our country and which only a miracle could +now save. Let us forget, in a word, the greatest calamity and the most +crying injustice of history and think to-day only of our approaching +deliverance. It is not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span> too early to hail it. It is already in all our +thoughts, as it is in all our hearts. It is already in the air which +we breathe, in all the eyes that smile at us, in all the voices that +welcome us, in all the hands outstretched to us, waving the laurels +which they hold; for what is bringing us deliverance is the wonder, +the admiration of the whole world!</p> + + +<h4>2</h4> + +<p>To-morrow we shall go back to our homes. We shall not mourn though we +find them in ruins. They will rise again more beautiful than of old +from the ashes and the shards. We shall know days of heroic poverty; +but we have learnt that poverty is powerless to sadden souls upheld by +a great love and nourished by a noble ideal. We shall return with +heads erect, regenerated in a regenerated Europe, rejuvenated by our +<a name="magnificent" id="magnificent"></a>magnificent misfortune,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span> purified by victory and cleansed of the +littleness that obscured the virtues which slumbered within us and of +which we are not aware. We shall have lost all the goods that perish +but as readily come to live again. And in their place we shall have +acquired those riches which shall not again perish within our hearts. +Our eyes were closed to many things; now they have opened upon wider +horizons. Of old we dared not avert our gaze from our wealth, our +petty comforts, our little rooted habits. But now our eyes have been +wrested from the soil; now they have achieved the sight of heights +that were hitherto unnoticed. We did not know ourselves; we used not +to love one another sufficiently; but we have learnt to know ourselves +in the amazement of glory and to love one another in the grievous +ardour of the most stupendous sacrifice that any people has ever +accomplished. We were<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span> on the point of forgetting the heroic virtues, +the unfettered thoughts, the eternal ideas that lead humanity. To-day, +not only do we know that they exist: we have taught the world that +they are always triumphant, that nothing is lost while faith is left, +while honour is intact, while love continues, while the soul does not +surrender and that the most monstrous of powers will never prevail +against those ideal forces which are the happiness and the glory of +man and the sole reason for his existence.</p> + + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span></p><hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="ON_THE_DEATH_OF_A_LITTLE_SOLDIER" id="ON_THE_DEATH_OF_A_LITTLE_SOLDIER"></a>ON THE DEATH OF A LITTLE SOLDIER</h2> + + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span></p><hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="X" id="X"></a>X</h2> + +<h3>ON THE DEATH OF A LITTLE SOLDIER</h3> + + +<h4>1</h4> + +<p>When I speak of this little soldier who fell a few days ago, up there +in the Vosges, it is not that I may mourn him publicly. It <a name="behoves" id="behoves"></a>behoves us +in these days to mourn our dead in secret. Personal sorrows no longer +count; and we must learn how to suppress them in the presence of that +greater sorrow which extends over all the world, the particular sorrow +of the mothers who are setting us an example of the most heroic +silence that human suffering has been taught to observe since +suffering first visited womankind. For the admirable silence of the +mothers is one of the great and striking lessons of this war. Amid +that tragic and sublime silence no regret dare make itself heard.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span></p> + +<p>But, though my grief remains dumb, my admiration can still raise its +voice; and in speaking of this young soldier, who had not reached +man's estate and who died as the bravest of men, I speak of all his +brothers-in-arms and hail thousands like him in his name, which name +becomes a great and glorious symbol; for at this time, when a +prodigious wave of unselfishness and courage, surging up from the very +depths of the human race, uplifts the men who are fighting and giving +their lives for its future, they all resemble one another in the same +perfection.</p> + + +<h4>2</h4> + +<p>My friend Raymond Bon was a sergeant in the 27th battalion of the +Chasseurs Alpins. He left for the front in August, 1914, with the +other recruits of the 1915 class, which means that he was hardly +twenty years of age; and he won his stripes<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span> on the battlefield, after +being twice named in dispatches. The second time was on returning from +a murderous assault at Thann, in Upper Alsace, in which he had greatly +distinguished himself. I quote the exact words:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"Corporal Bon is mentioned in the orders of the battalion +for his gallantry under fire and his indifference to danger. +When the leader of his section was killed, Bon took command, +rushed to the front and, shouting to his men to follow him, +gave proofs of the greatest initiative and courage. He was +the first in the enemy's trenches with his section."</p></div> + +<p>That day he was promoted to sergeant and complimented by the general +in front of his battalion in the following terms:</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span></p> +<div class="blockquot"><p>"This is the second time, my friend, that I am told what +you have done; next time you shall be told what I have +done."</p></div> + +<p>To-day men tell of his death, but also of the undying glory which +death alone confers.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"At Hartmannsviller," writes one of Bon's comrades, +"according to his captain's story, our friend's company was +held in reserve, waiting to support the attack delivered by +a regiment of infantry. The order came to support and +reinforce the attack. The company at once leapt from the +trenches, with the captain and Bon at its head. There was a +salvo of artillery; and the bursting of a great shell caught +Raymond almost full in the body, smashing his right leg and +his chest. The captain was hit in the right hand. +Notwithstanding his horrible wounds, Bon did not lose +consciousness; he was able to stammer out a few words and to +press the hand <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span>which the captain gave him. In less than two +minutes all was over."</p></div> + +<p>And the captain adds:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"Always ready to sacrifice himself; a brave among the +brave."</p></div> + +<p>These are modest and yet glorious details: modest because they are so +very common, because they are constantly being repeated in their noble +monotony and springing up from every side, numberless as the essential +actions of our daily life; and glorious because before this war they +seemed so rare and almost legendary and incomprehensible.</p> + + +<h4>3</h4> + +<p>Raymond Bon was a child of the south, of that Provence which, day +after day, is shedding torrents of its blood to wipe out slanders +which we can no longer remember without turning pale with anger and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span> +indignation. He was born at Avignon, the old city of the Popes and the +cicadas, where men have louder accents and lighter hearts than +elsewhere. He was a little boxing-master, who earned a livelihood at +Nice for himself and his destitute parents by giving lessons in the +noble art of self-defence with the good, ever-ready weapons which +nature has bestowed upon us. He boasted no other education than that +which a lad picks up at the primary school; but, almost illiterate as +he was, he possessed all the refinement, the innate culture, the +unconscious delicacy and tact, the kindliness of speech and feeling +and the beautiful heart of that comely race whose foremost sons seem +to be purified and spiritualized from their first childish steps by +the most radiant sunshine in the world. One would say that they were +directly related to those exquisite ephebes of ancient Greece who +sprang into existence ready to understand<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span> all things and to +experience life's purest emotions before they themselves had lived. My +reason for insisting upon the point is that, in this respect above +all, he represented thousands and thousands of young men from that +wonderful region where all the best and most lovable qualities of +mankind lie hidden all around beneath the indifferent surface of +everyday existence, only awaiting a favourable occasion to blossom +into astonishing flowers of grace and generosity and heroism.</p> + + +<h4>4</h4> + +<p>When I heard that he had gone to the front, I felt a melancholy +certainty that I should never set eyes on him again. He was of those +whose fate there is no mistaking. He was one of those predestined +heroes whose courage marks them out beforehand for death and laurels. +I but too well knew his eagerness, his unbounded <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span>sincerity and +single-mindedness and his great heart: that admirable heart devoid of +all caution or ulterior motive or calculation, that heart turned, at +all times and with all its might, purely towards honour and duty. He +was bound to be in the trenches and in the bayonet-charge the same man +that I had so often seen in the ring, taking risks from the start, +taking them wholesale, unremittingly, blindly and cheerfully and +<a name="always" id="always"></a>always ready with his pleasant smile, like that of a shy child, at any +time to face whatever giant might have challenged him.</p> + +<p>I remember that one day in the year 1914, he was training Georges +Carpentier, who was to meet some negro heavy-weight or other. The +disproportion in the strength of the two men struck my friends and me +as rather alarming; and we took the champion of the world aside and +begged him not to hit too hard and to spare our little instructor as +much as he could. That good<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span> fellow Carpentier, who is full of +chivalrous gentleness, promised to do what we asked; but after the +first round he came back to us and said:</p> + +<p>"I can't let him off just as lightly as I should like. The little chap +is too plucky and too sensitive; and I have to hit out in earnest. +Besides, he overheard you and what he says is, 'Never mind what the +gentlemen say; they are much too considerate and are always afraid of +my getting smashed up. There's no fear of that. You go for me hard, +else we sha'n't be doing good work.'"</p> + + +<h4>5</h4> + +<p>"Good work." That is evidently what he did down at the front and what +all of them there are doing. It is indeed fine work, the most glorious +that a man can perform, to die like that for a cause whose triumph he +will not behold, for benefits which he does not reap and which will<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span> +accrue solely to his fellow-men whom he will never see again. For, +apart from those benefits, like so many other men, like almost all the +others, he had nothing to gain and nothing to lose by this war. All +that he possessed in the world was the strength of his two arms; and +that strength finds a country everywhere.</p> + +<p>But we are no longer concerned with the personal and immediate +interests that guide nearly all the actions of everyday life. A +loftier ideal has visited men's minds and occupies them wholly; and +the least prepared, the humblest, the minds that seemed to understand +hardly anything of the existence that came before the tremendous +trial, now feel it and live it as thoroughly and with the same +infinite ampleness as do those minds which thought themselves alone +capable of grasping it, of considering it from above or contemplating +it from every side. Never did a sheer ideal sink<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span> so deeply into so +many hearts or abide there for so long without wavering or faltering. +And therefore, beyond a doubt, somewhere on high, in the heart of the +unknown powers that rule us, there is being piled up at this moment +the most wonderful treasure of immaterial forces that man has ever +possessed, one upon which he will draw until the end of time; for in +that superhuman treasure-house nothing is lost and we are still living +day by day on the virtues stored in it long centuries ago by the +heroes of Greece and Rome, by the saints and martyrs of the primitive +Church and by the flower of mediæval chivalry.</p> + + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span></p><hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="THE_HOUR_OF_DESTINY" id="THE_HOUR_OF_DESTINY"></a>THE HOUR OF DESTINY</h2> + + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span></p><hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="XI" id="XI"></a>XI</h2> + +<h3>THE HOUR OF DESTINY</h3> + + +<h4>1</h4> + +<p>We are already free to speak of this war as if it were ended and of +victory as if it were assured. In principle, in the region of moral +certainties, Germany has been beaten since the battle of the Marne; +and reality, which is always slower, because it goes burdened beneath +the weight of matter, must needs come obediently to join the ranks of +those certainties. The last agony may be prolonged for weeks and +months, for the animal is endowed with the stubborn and almost +inextinguishable vitality of the beasts of prey; but it is wounded to +the death; and we have only to wait patiently, weapon in hand, for the +final convulsions that announce the end. The historic event, the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span> +greatest beyond doubt since man possessed a history, is therefore +accomplished; and, strange to say, it seems as though it had been +accomplished in spite of history, against its laws and contrary to its +wishes. It is rash, I know, to speak of such things; and it behoves us +to be very cautious in these speculations which pass the scope of +human understanding; but, when we consider what the annals of this +earth of ours have taught us, it seemed written in the book of the +world's destinies that Germany was bound to win. It was not only, as +we are too ready at the first glance to believe, the megalomania of an +autocrat drunk with vanity, the gross vanity of some brainless +buffoon; it was not the warlike impulses, the blind infatuation and +egoism of a feudal caste; it was not even the impatient and +deliberately fanned envy and covetousness of a too prolific race +close-cramped on a dreary and ungrateful soil:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span> it was none of these +that let loose the hateful war. All these causes, adventitious or +fortuitous as they were, only settled the hour of the decision; but +the decision itself was taken and written, probably ages ago, in other +spheres which cannot be reached by the conscious will of man, spheres +in which dark and mighty laws hold sway over illimitable time and +space. The whole line, the whole huge curve of history showed to the +mind of whosoever tried to read its sacred and fearful hieroglyphics +that the day of a new, a formidable and inexorable event was at hand.</p> + +<p>The theories built up on this point in the last sixty years by the +German professors, notably by Giesbrecht, the historian of the Ottos +and the Hohenstaufens, and Treitschke, the historian of the +Hohenzollerns, do not necessarily carry conviction but are at least +impressive; and the work of these two writers, which we do not know<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span> +as well as we should, and of Treitschke in particular possessed in +Germany an influence that sank deep into every mind, far exceeding +that of Nietzsche, which we looked upon as preponderant.</p> + +<p>But let us ignore for the moment all that belongs to a remote past, +the study of which would call for more space than we have at our +disposal. Let us not question the empire of the Ottos, the +Hohenstaufens or the Hapsburgs, in which Germany, at least as a nation +and a race, played but a secondary part and was still unconscious of +her existence. Let us rather see what is happening nearer to us and, +so to speak, before our very eyes.</p> + + +<h4>2</h4> + +<p>A hundred years ago, under Napoleon, France enjoyed her spell of +hegemony, which she was not able to prolong because this hegemony was +more the work of a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span> prodigious but accidental genius than the fruit of +a real and intrinsic power. Next came the turn of England, who to-day +possesses the greatest empire that the world has seen since the days +of ancient Rome, that is to say, more than a fifth part of the +habitable globe. But this vast empire rests no more than did +Napoleon's upon an incontestible force, inasmuch as up to this day it +was defended only by an army less numerous and less well-equipped than +that of many a smaller nation, thus almost inevitably inviting war, as +Professor Cramb pointed out a year or two ago in his prophetic book, +<i>Germany and England</i>, which has only recently aroused the interest +which it deserves.</p> + +<p>It seemed, therefore, as if between these two Powers, which were more +illusory than real, pending the advent of Russia, whose hour had not +yet struck; in this gap in history, between a nation on the verge of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span> +its decline, or at least seemingly incapable of defending itself, and +a nation that was still too young and incapable of attack, fate +offered a magnificent place to whoso cared to take it. This is what +Germany felt, at first instinctively, urged by all the ill-defined +forces that impel mankind, and subsequently, in these latter years, +with a consciousness that became ever clearer and more persistent. She +grasped the fact that her turn had come to reign over the earth, that +she must take her chance and seize the opportunity that comes but +once. She prepared to answer the call of fate and, supported by the +mysterious aid which it lends to those whom it summons, she did +answer, we must admit, in an astonishing and most formidable manner.</p> + +<p>She was within a hair's breadth of succeeding. A little less prolonged +and less gallant resistance on the part of Belgium, a suspicious +movement from Italy, a false<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span> step made upon the banks of the Marne; +and we can picture Paris falling; France overrun and fighting +heroically to her last gasp; Russia, not crushed, but weary of seeking +victory and making terms for good or ill with a conqueror impotent to +harm her; the neutral nations more or less reluctantly siding with the +strongest; England isolated, giving up her colonies to staunch the +wounds of her invaded isle; the fasces of justice broken asunder by a +separate peace here, a separate peace there, each equally humiliating; +and Germany, monstrous, ferocious, implacable, finally towering alone +over the ruins of Europe.</p> + + +<h4>3</h4> + +<p>Now it seems that we have turned aside the inflexible decree. It seems +that we have averted the fate that was about to be accomplished. It +was bearing down upon us with the weight of the ages, with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span> all the +weight of all the vague but irresistible aspirations of the past and, +perhaps, the future. Thanks to the greatest effort which mankind has +ever opposed to the unknown gods that rule it, we are entitled to +believe that the decree has broken down and that we have driven it +into the evil cave where never human force before had compelled it to +hide its defeat.</p> + +<p>I say, "It seems;" I say, "We are entitled to believe." The fact is +that the ordeal is not yet past. Even on the day when the war is ended +and when victory is in our hands, destiny will not yet be conquered. +It has happened—seldom, it is true, but still it has happened twice +or thrice—that a nation has compelled the course of fate to turn +aside or to fall back. The nation congratulated herself, even as we +believe that we have the right to do. But events were not slow in +proving that she had congratulated herself too soon. Fatality, that is +to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span> say, the enormous mass of causes and effects of which we have no +understanding, was not overcome; it was only delayed, it awaited its +revenge and its day, or at least what we call its day, which may +extend over a hundred years and more where nations are concerned, for +fatality does not reckon in the manner of men, but after the fashion +of the great movements of nature. It is important at this time to know +whether we shall be able to escape that revenge and that day. If men +and nations were swayed only by reason, if, after being so often the +absolute masters of their happiness and their future, they had not so +often destroyed that which they had just achieved, then we might +say—and indeed ought to say—that our escape depends only upon +ourselves. In point of fact, three-quarters of the risk are run and +the fourth is in our power; we have only to keep it so. Almost all the +chances<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span> of the fight are on our side at last; and, when the war is +over, there will be nothing but our wisdom and our will confronting a +destiny which from that time onward will be powerless to take its +course, unless it first succeed in blinding and perverting them.</p> + +<p>In this hour all that lies hidden under that mysterious word will be +waiting on our decision, waiting to know if victory is with us or with +it. It is after we have won that we must really vanquish; it is in the +hour of peace that the actual war will begin against an invisible foe, +a hundred times as dangerous as the one of whom we have seen too much. +If at that hour we do not profit by all our advantages; if we do not +destroy, root and branch, the military power of an enemy who is in +secret alliance with the evil influences of the earth; if we do not +here and now, by an irrevocable compact, forearm ourselves<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span> against +our sense of pity and generosity, our weakness, our imprudence, our +future rivalries and discords; if we leave a single outlet to the +beast at bay; if, through our negligence, we give it a single hope, a +single opportunity of coming to the surface and taking breath, then +the vigilant fatality which has but one fixed idea will resume its +progress and pursue its way, dragging history with it and laughing +over its shoulder at man once more tricked and discomfited. Everything +that we have done and suffered, the ruins, the sacrifices, the +nameless tortures and the numberless dead, will have served no purpose +and will be lost beyond redemption. Everything will not have to be +done over again, for nothing is ever done over again and fortunate +opportunities do not occur twice; but everything except our woes and +all their consequences will be as though it had never been.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span></p> + + +<h4>4</h4> + +<p>It will therefore be a matter of holding our own against the enemy +whom we do not see and mastering him until the turn or chance of the +accursed race is past. How long will that be? We cannot tell; but, in +the swift-moving history of to-day, it seems probable that the waiting +and the struggle will be much shorter than they would have been in +former times. Is it possible that fatality—by which I mean what +perhaps for a moment was the unacknowledged desire of the +planet—shall not regain the upper hand? At the stage which man has +reached, I hope and believe so. He had never conquered it before; but +also he had not yet risen to the height which he has now attained. +There is no reason why that which has never happened should not take +place one day; and everything seems to tell us that man is approaching +the day whereon, seizing the most<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span> glorious opportunity that has ever +presented itself since he acquired a consciousness, he will at last +learn that he is able, when he pleases, to control his whole fate in +this world.</p> + + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span></p><hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="IN_ITALY" id="IN_ITALY"></a>IN ITALY</h2> + + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span></p><hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="XII" id="XII"></a>XII</h2> + +<h3>IN ITALY</h3> + + +<h4>1</h4> + +<p>A few days before Italy formed her great resolve, the following lines +appeared in one of the leading Pangermanic organs of the peoples +beyond the Rhine, the <i>Kreuzzeitung</i>:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"We have already observed that it will not do to be too +optimistic as to Italy's decision; in point of fact, the +situation is very serious. If none but moderate +considerations had ruled Italy's intentions, there is little +doubt as to which path she would choose; but we know the +height which the wave of Germanophobia has attained in that +country, a significant mark of the popular sentiment being +the declaration of the Italian Socialists upon the reasons +of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span>their inability to oppose the war. An equal source of +danger is the fact that the government feels that it no +longer controls the current of public opinion."</p></div> + +<p>The whole drama of Italian intervention is summed up in these lines, +which explain it better than would the longest and most learned +commentaries.</p> + +<p>The Italian government, restrained by a politic wisdom and prudence, +excessive, perhaps, but very excusable, did not wish for war. To the +utmost limits of patience, until its dignity and its sense of security +could bear no more, it did all that could be done to spare its people +the greatest calamity that can befall a land. It held out until it was +literally submerged and carried away by the flood of Germanophobia of +which the passage which I have quoted speaks. I witnessed the rising +of this flood. When I arrived in Milan, at the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span> end of November, 1914, +to speak a few sentences at a charity-fête organized for the benefit +of the Belgian refugees, the hatred of Germany was already storing +itself up in men's hearts, but had not as yet come to the surface. +Here and there it did break out, but it was still fearful, circumspect +and hesitating. One felt it brewing, seething in the depths of men's +souls, but it seemed as yet to be feeling its way, to be reckoning +itself up, to be painfully attaining self-consciousness. When I +returned to Italy in March, 1915, I was amazed to behold the +unhoped-for height to which the invading flood had so swiftly risen. +That pious hatred, that necessary hatred, which in this case is merely +a magnificent passion for justice and humanity, had swept over +everything. It had come out into the full sunlight; it thrilled and +quivered at the least appeal, proud and happy to assert itself, to +manifest itself with the beautiful<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span> tumultuous ostentation of the +South; and it was the "neutrals" that now hid themselves after the +manner of unspeakable insects. That species had all but disappeared, +annihilated by the storm that was gathering on every hand. The Germans +themselves had gone to earth, no one knew where; and from that moment +it was certain that war was imminent and inevitable.</p> + +<p>In the space of three months a stupendous work had been accomplished. +It is impossible for the moment to weigh and determine the part of +each of those who performed it. But we can even now say that in Italy, +which is governed preeminently by public opinion and which, more than +any other nation, has in its blood the traditions and the habits of +the forum and the ancient republics, it is above all the spoken word +that changes men's hearts and urges them to action.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span></p> + +<h4>2</h4> + +<p>From this point of view, the admirable campaign of agitation and +propaganda undertaken by M. Jules Destrée, author of <i>En Italie</i>, was +of an importance and possessed consequences which are beyond +comparison with anything else accomplished and which are difficult to +realize by those who were not present at one or other of the meetings +at which, for more than six months, indefatigably, travelling from +town to town, from the smallest to the most populous, he uttered the +distressful complaint of martyred Belgium, unveiling the lies, the +felonies, the monstrosities and the acts of devastation perpetrated by +the barbarian horde and making heard, with sovran eloquence, the +august voice of outraged justice and of baffled right.</p> + +<p>I heard him more than once and was able to judge for myself of the +magical effect—the term is by no means too strong—which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span> he produced +on the Italian crowd. It was a magnificent spectacle, which I shall +never forget. I then perceived for the first time in my life the +mysterious, incantatory, supernatural powers of great eloquence.</p> + +<p>He would come forward wearing a languid, dejected and overburdened +air. The crowd, like all crowds awaiting their master, sat thronged at +his feet, silently humming, undecided, unshaped, not yet knowing what +it wanted or intended. He would begin; his voice was low, leisurely, +almost hesitating; he seemed to be painfully searching for his ideas +and expressions, but in reality he was feeling for the sensitive and +magnetic points of the huge and unknown being whose soul he wished to +reach. At the outset it was evident that he did not know exactly what +he was going to say. He swept his words across the assembly as though +they had been antennæ. They<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span> came back to him charged with sympathy +and strength and precise information. Then his delivery became more +rapid, his body drew itself erect, his stature and his very size +increased. His voice grew fuller; it became tremendous, seductive or +sarcastic, overwhelming like a hurricane all the ideas of his +audience, beating against the walls of the largest buildings, flowing, +through the doors and windows, out into the surging streets, there to +kindle the ardour and hatred which already thrilled the hall. His +face—tawny, brutal, ravaged, furrowed with shade and slashed with +light, powerful and magnificent in its ugliness—became the very mask, +the visible symbol of the furious and generous passions of the crowd. +At moments such as this, he truly merited the name which I heard those +about me murmuring, the name which the Italians gave him in that kind +of helpless fear and delight which men feel in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span> presence of an +irresistible force: he was "the Terrible Orator."</p> + +<p>But all this power, which seemed so blindly released, was in reality +extremely circumspect, extremely subtle and marvellously disciplined. +The handling of those shy though excited crowds called for the utmost +prudence, as a certain French speaker, whom I will not name, but who +wished to make a like attempt, learnt to his cost. The Italian is +generous, courteous, hospitable, expansive and enthusiastic, but also +proud and susceptible. He does not readily allow another to dictate +his conduct, to reproach him with his shortcomings or to offer him +advice. He is conscious of his own worth; he knows that he is the +eldest son of our civilization and that no one has the right to +patronize him. It is necessary, therefore, beneath the appearance of +the most fiery and unbridled eloquence, to observe perfect +self-mastery,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span> combined with infinite tact and discretion. It is often +essential to divine instantaneously the temper of the crowd, to bow +before the most varied and unexpected circumstances and to profit by +them. I remember, among others, a singularly prickly meeting at +Naples. The Neapolitans are hardly warlike people; but they none the +less felt on this occasion that they must not appear indifferent to +the generous movement which was thrilling the rest of Italy. At the +last moment, we were warned that we might speak of Belgium and her +misfortunes, but that any too pointed allusion to the war, any too +violent attack upon the Teutonic bandits would arouse protests which +might injure our cause. I, being no orator, had only my poor written +speech, which, as I could not alter it, became dangerous. It was +necessary to prepare the ground. Destrée mounted the platform and, in +a masterly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span> improvisation, began by establishing a long, patient and +scholarly parallel between Flemish and Italian art, between the great +painters of Florence and Venice and those of Flanders and Brabant; and +thence, by imperceptible degrees, he shifted his ground to the present +distress in Belgium, to the atrocities and infamies committed by her +oppressors, to the whole story, to the whole series of injustices, to +the whole danger of this nameless war. He was applauded; the barriers +were broken down. Anything added to what he had said was superfluous; +but everything was permissible.</p> + + +<h4>3</h4> + +<p>For the rest, it must be admitted that a wonderful impulse of pity and +admiration for Belgium sustained the orator and lent his every word a +range and a potency which it could not otherwise have possessed. This +unanimous and spontaneous<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span> sympathy assumed at times the most touching +and unexpected forms. All difficulties were smoothed away before us as +by magic; the sternest prohibitions were ingeniously evaded or +benevolently removed. From the towns which we were due to visit the +hotel-keepers telegraphed to us, begging as a favour permission to +give us lodging; and, when the time came to settle our account, it was +impossible to get them to accept the slightest remuneration; and the +whole staff, from the majestic porter to the humblest boot-boy, +heroically refused to be tipped. If we entered a restaurant and were +recognized, the customers would rise, take counsel together and order +a bottle of some famous wine; then one among them would come forward, +requesting, gracefully and respectfully, that we would do them the +honour of drinking with them to the deliverance of our martyred +motherland. At<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span> the memory of what that unhappy country had suffered +for the salvation of the world, a sort of discreet and affecting +fervour was visible in the looks of all; it may be said that nowhere +was the heroic sacrifice of Belgium more nobly and more affectionately +admired and understood; and it will be recognized one day, when time +has done its work, that, although other causes induced Italy to take +upon her shoulders the terrible burden of what was not an inevitable +war, the only causes that really, in the depths of her soul, liberated +her resolve were the admiration, the indignation and the heroic pity +inspired by the spectacle, incessantly renewed, of our unmerited +afflictions. You will not find in history a nobler sacrifice nor one +made for a nobler cause.</p> + + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span></p><hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="ON_REREADING_THUCYDIDES" id="ON_REREADING_THUCYDIDES"></a>ON REREADING THUCYDIDES</h2> + + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span></p><hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="XIII" id="XIII"></a>XIII</h2> + +<h3>ON REREADING THUCYDIDES</h3> + + +<h4>1</h4> + +<p>At moments above all when history is in the making, in these times +when great and as yet incomplete pages are being traced, pages by the +side of which all that had already been written will pale, it is a +good and salutary thing to turn to the past in search of instruction, +warning and encouragement. In this respect, the unwearying and +implacable war which Athens kept up against Sparta for twenty-seven +years, with the hegemony of Greece for a stake, presents more than one +analogy with that which we ourselves are waging and teaches lessons +that should make us reflect. The counsels which it gives us are all +the more precious, all the more striking or profound inasmuch as the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span> +war is narrated to us by a man who remains, with Tacitus, despite the +striving of the centuries, the progress of life and all the +opportunities of doing better, the greatest historian that the earth +has ever known. Thucydides is in fact the supreme historian, at the +same time swift and detailed, scrupulously sifting his evidence but +giving free play to intuition, setting forth none but incontestable +facts, yet divining the most secret intentions and embracing at a +glance all the present and future political consequences of the events +which he relates. He is withal one of the most perfect writers, one of +the most admirable artists in the literature of mankind; and from this +point of view, in an entirely different and almost antagonistic world, +he has not an equal save Tacitus. But Tacitus is before everything a +wonderful tragic poet, a painter of foul abysses, of fire and blood, +who can lay bare the souls of monsters and their<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span> crimes, whereas +Thucydides is above all a great political moralist, a statesman +endowed with extraordinary perspicacity, a painter of the open air and +of a free state, who portrays the minds of those sane, ingenious, +subtle, generous and marvellously intelligent men who peopled ancient +Greece. The one piles on the gloom with a lavish hand, gathers dark +shadows which he pierces at each sentence with lightning flashes, but +remains sombre and oppressed on the very summits, whereas the other +condenses nothing but light, groups together judgments that are so +many radiant sheaves and remains luminous and breathes freely in the +very depths. The first is passionate, violent, fierce, indignant, +bitter, sincerely but pitilessly unjust and all made up of magnificent +animosities; the second is always even, always at the same high level, +which is that which the noblest endeavour of human reason can attain. +He has no<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span> passion but a passion for the public weal, for justice, +glory and intelligence. It is as though all his work were spread out +in the blue sky; and even his famous picture of the plague of Athens +seems covered with sunshine.</p> + + +<h4>2</h4> + +<p>But there is no need to follow up this parallel, which is not my +object. I will not dwell any longer—though perhaps I may return to +them one day—upon the lessons which we might derive from that +Peloponnesian War, in which the position of Athens towards Lacedaemon +provides more than one point of comparison with that of France towards +Germany. True, we do not there see, as in our own case, civilized +nations fighting a morally barbarian people: it was a contest between +Greeks and Greeks, displaying however in the same physical race two +different and incompatible spirits. Athens stood for human life<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span> in +its happiest development, gracious, cheerful and peaceful. She took no +serious interest except in the happiness, the imponderous riches, the +innocent and perfect beauties, the sweet leisures, the glories and the +arts of peace. When she went to war, it was as though in play, with +the smile still on her face, looking upon it as a more violent +pleasure than the rest, or as a duty joyfully accepted. She bound +herself down to no discipline, she was never ready, she improvised +everything at the last moment, having, as Pericles said, "with habits +not of labour but of ease and courage not of art but of nature, the +double advantage of escaping the experience of hardship in +anticipation and of facing them in the hour of need as fearlessly as +those who are never free from them."<a name="FNanchor_5_5" id="FNanchor_5_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span></p> + +<p>For Sparta, on the other hand, life was nothing but endless work, an +incessant strain, having no other objective than war. She was gloomy, +austere, strict, morose, almost ascetic, an enemy to everything that +excuses man's presence on this earth, a nation of spoilers, looters, +incendiaries and devastators, a nest of wasps beside a swarm of bees, +a perpetual menace and danger to everything around her, as hard upon +herself as upon others and boasting an ideal which may appear lofty, +if it can be man's ideal to be unhappy and the contented slave of +unrelenting discipline. On the other hand, she differed entirely from +those whom we are now fighting in that she was generally honest, loyal +and upright and showed a certain respect for the gods and their +temples, for treaties and for international law. It is none the less +true that, if she had from the beginning reigned alone or without +encountering a long resistance, Hellas would<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span> never have been the +Hellas that we know. She would have left in history but a precarious +trace of useless warlike virtues and of minor combats without glory; +and mankind would not have possessed that centre of light towards +which it turns to this day.</p> + + +<h4>3</h4> + +<p>What was to be the issue of this war? Here begins the lesson which it +were well to study thoroughly. It would seem indeed as if, with the +first encounters in that conflict, as in our own, the inexplicable will +that governs nations was favourable to the less civilized; and in fact +Lacedaemon gained the upper hand, at least temporarily and sufficiently +to abuse her victory to such a degree that she soon lost its fruits. +But Athens held the evil will in check for seven-and-twenty years; for +twenty-seven summers and twenty-seven winters, to use Thucydides' +reckoning, she proved to us<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</a></span> that it is possible, in defiance of +probability, to fight against what seems written in the book of heaven +and hell. Nay more, at a time when Sparta, whose sole industry, whose +sole training, whose only reason for existence and whose only ideal +was war, was hugging the thought of crushing in a few weeks, under the +weight of her formidable hoplites, a frivolous, careless and +ill-organized city, Athens, notwithstanding the treacherous blow which +fate dealt her by sending a plague that carried off a third of her +civil population and a quarter of her army, Athens for seventeen years +definitely held victory in her grasp.</p> + +<p>During this period, she more than once had Lacedaemon at her mercy and +did not begin to descend the stony path of ruin and defeat until after +the disastrous expedition to Sicily, in which, carried away by her +rhetoricians and bitten with inconceivable folly, she hurled all her +fleet, all her soldiers<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</a></span> and all her wealth into a remote, +unprofitable, unknown and desperate adventure. She resisted the +decline of her fortunes for yet another ten years, heaping up her sins +against wisdom and simple common sense and with her own hands drawing +tighter the knot that was to strangle her, as though to show us that +destiny is for the most part but our own madness and that what we call +unavoidable fatality has its root only in mistakes that might easily +be avoided.</p> + + +<h4>4</h4> + +<p>To point this moral was again not my real object. In these days when +we have so many sorrows to assuage and so many deaths to honour, I +wished merely to recall a page written over two thousand years ago, to +the glory of the Athenian heroes who fell for their country in the +first battles of that war. According to the custom of the Greeks, the +bones of the dead<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</a></span> that had been burnt on the battlefield were +solemnly brought back to Athens at the end of the year; and the people +chose the greatest speaker in the city to deliver the funeral oration. +This honour fell to Pericles, son of Xanthippus, the Pericles of the +golden age of human beauty. After pronouncing a well-merited and +magnificent eulogium on the Athenian nation and institutions, he +concluded with the following words:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"Indeed, if I have dwelt at some length upon the character +of our country, it has been to show that our stake in the +struggle is not the same as theirs who have no such blessing +to lose and also that the panegyric of the men over whom I +am now speaking might be by definite proofs established. +That panegyric is now in a great measure complete; for the +Athens that I have celebrated is only what the heroism of +these and their like have made her, men whose <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</a></span>fame, unlike +that of most Hellenes, will be found to be only commensurate +with their deserts. And, if a test of worth be wanted, it is +to be found in their closing scene; and this not only in the +cases in which it set the final seal upon their merit, but +also in those in which it gave the first intimation of their +having any. For there is justice in the claim that +steadfastness in his country's battles should be as a cloak +to cover a man's other imperfections, since the good action +has blotted out the bad and his merit as a citizen more than +outweighed his demerits as an individual. But none of these +allowed either wealth with its prospect of future enjoyment +to unnerve his spirit, or poverty with its hope of a day of +freedom and riches to tempt him to shrink from danger. No, +holding that vengeance upon their enemies was more to be +desired than any personal blessings and reckoning this to be +the most glorious of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</a></span>hazards, they joyfully determined to +accept the risk, to make sure of their vengeance and to let +their wishes wait; and, while committing to hope the +uncertainty of final success, in the business before them +they thought fit to act boldly and trust in themselves. Thus +choosing to die resisting rather than to live submitting, +they fled only from dishonour, but met danger face to face +and, after one brief moment, while at the summit of their +fortune, escaped not from their fear but from their glory.</p> + +<p>"So died these <a name="men" id="men"></a>men as became Athenians. You, their +survivors, must determine to have as unfaltering a +resolution in the field, though you may pray that it may +have a happier issue. And, not contented with ideas derived +only from words of the advantages which are bound up with +the defence of your country, though these would furnish a +valuable text to a speaker even before an audience so alive +to them as the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</a></span>present, you must yourselves realize the +power of Athens and feed your eyes upon her from day to day, +till love of her fills your hearts; and then, when all her +greatness shall break upon you, you must reflect that it was +by courage, sense of duty and a keen feeling of honour in +action that men were enabled to win all this and that no +personal failure in an enterprise could make them consent to +deprive their country of their valour, but they laid it at +her feet as the most glorious contribution that they could +offer. For by this offering of their lives made in common by +them all they each of them individually received that renown +which never grows old and, for a sepulchre, not so much that +in which their bones have been deposited, but that noblest +of shrines wherein their glory is laid up to be eternally +remembered upon every occasion on which deed or story shall +call for its commemoration. For heroes have the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</a></span>whole earth +for their tomb; and in lands far from their own, where the +column with its epitaph declares it, there is enshrined in +every breast a record unwritten with no tablet to preserve +it, except that of the heart. These take as your model and, +judging happiness to be the fruit of freedom and freedom of +valour, never decline the dangers of war. For it is not the +miserable that would most justly be unsparing of their +lives: these have nothing to hope for; it is rather they to +whom continued life may bring reverses as yet unknown and to +whom a fall, if it came, would be most tremendous in its +consequences. And surely, to a man of spirit, the +degradation of cowardice must be immeasurably more grievous +than the unfelt death which strikes him in the midst of his +strength and patriotism!</p> + +<p>"Comfort, therefore, not condolence, is what I have to offer +to the parents of the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</a></span>dead who may be here. Numberless are +the chances to which, as they know, the life of man is +subject; but fortunate indeed are they who draw for their +lot a death so glorious as that which has caused your +mourning and to whom life has been so exactly measured as to +terminate in the happiness in which it has been passed. +Still I know that this is a hard saying, especially when +those are in question of whom you will be constantly +reminded by seeing in the homes of others blessings of which +once you also boasted; for grief is felt not so much for the +want of what we have never known as for the loss of that to +which we have been long accustomed. Yet you who are still of +an age to beget children must bear up in the hope of having +others in their stead: not only will they help you to forget +those whom you have lost, but they will be to the state at +once a reinforcement and a security; for never can a fair or +just policy be expected of the citizen who does <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</a></span>not, like +his fellows, bring to the decision the interests and +apprehensions of a father. While those of you who have +passed your prime must congratulate yourselves with the +thought that the best part of your life was fortunate and +that the brief span that remains will be cheered by the fame +of the departed. For it is only the love of honour that +never grows old; and honour it is, not gain, as some would +have it, that rejoices the heart of age and helplessness.</p> + +<p>"And, now that you have brought to a close your lamentations +for your relatives, you may depart."</p></div> + +<p>These words spoken twenty-three <a name="centuries" id="centuries"></a>centuries ago ring in our hearts as +though they were uttered yesterday. They celebrate our dead better +than could any eloquence of ours, however poignant it might be. Let us +bow before their paramount beauty and before the great people that +could applaud and understand.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_5_5" id="Footnote_5_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> This and the later passage from Pericles' funeral oration +I have quoted from the late Richard Crawley's admirable translation of +Thucydides' <i>Peloponnesian War</i>, now published in the <i>Temple +Classics</i>.—A. T. de M.</p></div> +</div> + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</a></span></p><hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="THE_DEAD_DO_NOT_DIE" id="THE_DEAD_DO_NOT_DIE"></a>THE DEAD DO NOT DIE</h2> + + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</a></span></p><hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="XIV" id="XIV"></a>XIV</h2> + +<h3>THE DEAD DO NOT DIE</h3> + + +<h4>1</h4> + +<p>When we behold the terrible loss of so many young lives, when we see +so many incarnations of physical and moral vigour, of intellect and of +glorious promise pitilessly cut off in their first flower, we are on +the verge of despair. Never before have the fairest energies and +aspirations of men been flung recklessly and incessantly into an abyss +whence comes no sound or answer. Never since it came into existence +has humanity squandered its treasure, its substance and its prospects +so lavishly. For more than twelve months, on every battlefield, where +the bravest, the truest, the most ardent and self-sacrificing are +necessarily the first to die and where the less courageous, the less +generous, the weak, the ailing,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</a></span> in a word the less desirable, alone +possess some chance of escaping the carnage, for over twelve months a +sort of monstrous inverse selection has been in operation, one which +seems to be deliberately seeking the downfall of the human race. And +we wonder uneasily what the state of the world will be after the great +trial and what will be left of it and what will be the future of this +stunted race, shorn of all the best and noblest part of it.</p> + +<p>The problem is certainly one of the darkest that have ever vexed the +minds of men. It contains a material truth before which we remain +defenceless; and, if we accept it as it stands, we can discover no +remedy for the evil that threatens us. But material and tangible +truths are never anything but a more or less salient angle of greater +and deeper-lying truths. And, on the other hand, mankind appears to be +such a necessary and indestructible force of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</a></span>nature that it has +always, hitherto, not only survived the most desperate ordeals, but +succeeded in benefiting by them and emerging greater and stronger than +before.</p> + + +<h4>2</h4> + +<p>We know that peace is better than war; it were madness to compare the +two. We know that, if this <a name="cataclysm" id="cataclysm"></a>cataclysm let loose by an act of +unutterable folly had not come upon the world, mankind would doubtless +have reached ere long a zenith of wonderful achievement whose +manifestations it is impossible to foreshadow. We know that, if a +third or a fourth part of the fabulous sums expended on extermination +and destruction had been devoted to works of peace, all the iniquities +that poison the air we breathe would have been triumphantly redressed +and that the social question, the one great question, that matter of +life and death which justice demands that posterity<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</a></span> should face, +would have found its definite solution, once and for all, in a +happiness which now perhaps even our sons and grandsons will not +realize. We know that the disappearance of two or three million young +existences, cut down when they were on the point of bearing fruit, +will leave in history a void that will not be easily filled, even as +we know that among those dead were mighty intellects, treasures of +genius which will not come back again and which contained inventions +and discoveries that will now perhaps be lost to us for centuries. We +know that we shall never grasp the consequences of this thrusting back +of progress and of this unprecedented devastation. But, granting all +this, it is a good thing to recover our balance and stand upon our +feet. There is no irreparable loss. Everything is transformed, nothing +perishes and that which seems to be hurled into destruction is not +destroyed at all. Our moral<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</a></span> world, even as our physical world, is a +vast but hermetically sealed sphere, whence naught can issue, whence +naught can fall, to be dissolved in space. All that exists, all that +comes into being upon this earth remains there and bears fruit; and +the most appalling wastage is but material or spiritual riches flung +away for an instant, to fall to the ground again in a new form. There +is no escape or leakage, no filtering through cracks, no missing the +mark, not even waste or neglect. All this heroism poured out on every +side does not leave our planet; and the reason why the courage of our +fighters seems so general and yet so extraordinary is that all the +might of the dead has passed into the survivors. All those forces of +wisdom, patience, honour and self-sacrifice which increase day by day +and which we ourselves, who are far from the field of danger, feel +rising within us without knowing whence<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</a></span> they come are nothing but the +souls of the heroes gathered and absorbed by our own souls.</p> + + +<h4>3</h4> + +<p>It is well at times to contemplate invisible things as though we saw +them with our eyes. This was the aim of all the great religions, when +they represented under forms appropriate to the civilization of their +day, the latent, deep, instinctive, general and essential truths which +are the guiding principles of mankind. All have felt and recognized +that loftiest of all truths, the communion of the living and the dead, +and have given it various names designating the same mysterious +verity: the Christians know it as revival of merit, the Buddhists as +reincarnation, or transmigration of souls, and the Japanese as +Shintoism, or ancestor-worship. The last are more fully convinced than +any other nation<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</a></span> that the dead do not cease to live and that they +direct all our actions, are exalted by our virtues and become gods.</p> + +<p>Lafcadio Hearn, the writer who has most closely studied and understood +that wonderful ancestor-worship, says:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"One of the surprises of our future will certainly be a +return to beliefs and ideas long ago abandoned upon the mere +assumption that they contained no truth—beliefs still +called barbarous, pagan, mediæval, by those who condemn them +out of traditional habit. Year after year the researches of +science afford us new proof that the savage, the barbarian, +the idolater, the monk, each and all have arrived, by +different paths, as near to some point of eternal truth as +any thinker of the nineteenth century. We are now learning +also, that the theories of the astrologers and of the +alchemists were but partially, not totally, wrong. We have +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</a></span>reason even to suppose that no dream of the invisible world +has ever been dreamed, that no hypothesis of the unseen has +ever been imagined—which future science will not prove to +have contained some germ of reality."<a name="FNanchor_6_6" id="FNanchor_6_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a></p></div> + +<p>There are many things which might be added to these lines, notably all +that the most recent of our sciences, metapsychics, is engaged in +discovering with regard to the miraculous faculties of our +subconsciousness.</p> + +<p>But, to return more directly to what we were saying, was it not +observed that, after the great battles of the Napoleonic era, the +birth-rate increased in an extraordinary manner, as though the lives +suddenly cut short in their prime were not really dead and were eager +to be back again in our midst and complete their career? If we<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</a></span> could +follow with our eyes all that is happening in the spiritual world that +rises above us on every side, we should no doubt see that it is the +same with the moral force that seems to be lost on the field of +slaughter. It knows where to go, it knows its goal, it does not +hesitate. All that our wonderful dead relinquish they bequeath to us; +and when they die for us, they leave us their lives not in any +strained metaphorical sense, but in a very real and direct way. Virtue +goes out of every man who falls while performing a deed of glory; and +that virtue drops down upon us; and nothing of him is lost and nothing +evaporates in the shock of a premature end. He gives us in one +solitary and mighty stroke what he would have given us in a long life +of duty and love. Death does not injure life; it is powerless against +it. Life's aggregate never changes. What death takes from those who +fall enters into those who<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</a></span> are left standing. The number of lamps +grows less, but the flame rises higher. Death is in no wise the gainer +so long as there are living men. The more it exercises its ravages, +the more it increases the intensity of that which it cannot touch; the +more it pursues its phantom victories, the better does it prove to us +that man will end by conquering death.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_6_6" id="Footnote_6_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> <i>Kokoro: Hints and Echoes of Japanese Life</i>, chapter +xiv., "Some thoughts about Ancestor-Worship."</p></div> +</div> + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</a></span></p><hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="IN_MEMORIAM" id="IN_MEMORIAM"></a>IN MEMORIAM</h2> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="XV" id="XV"></a>XV</h2> + +<h3>IN MEMORIAM</h3> + + +<h4>1</h4> + +<p>Those who die for their country should not be numbered with the dead. +We must call them by another name. They have nothing in common with +those who end in their beds a life that is worn out, a life almost +always too long and often useless. Death, which every elsewhere is but +the object of fear and horror, bringing naught but nothingness and +despair, this death, on the field of battle, in the clash of glory, +becomes more gracious than birth and exhales a beauty greater than +that of love. No life will ever give what their youth is offering us, +that youth which gives in one moment the days and the years that lay +before it. There is no sacrifice to be compared with that which they +have made;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</a></span> for which reason there is no glory that can soar so high +as theirs, no gratitude that can surpass the gratitude which we owe +them. They have not only a right to the foremost place in our +memories: they have a right to all our memories and to everything that +we are, since we exist only through them.</p> + + +<h4>2</h4> + +<p>And now it is in us that their life, so suddenly cut short, must +resume its course. Whatever be our faith and whatever the God whom it +adores, one thing is almost certain and, in spite of all appearances, +is daily becoming more certain: it is that death and life are +commingled; the dead and the living alike are but moments, hardly +dissimilar, of a single and infinite existence and members of one +immortal family. They are not beneath the earth, in the depths of +their tombs; they lie deep in our hearts, where all that they once +were<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[Pg 195]</a></span> will continue to live to to act; and they live in us even as we +die in them. They see us, they understand us more nearly than when +they were in our arms; let us then keep a watch upon ourselves, so +that they witness no actions and hear no words but words and actions +that shall be worthy of them.</p> + + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[Pg 197]</a></span></p><hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="SUPERNATURAL_COMMUNICATIONS_IN_WAR-TIME" id="SUPERNATURAL_COMMUNICATIONS_IN_WAR-TIME"></a>SUPERNATURAL COMMUNICATIONS IN WAR-TIME</h2> + + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</a></span></p><hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="XVI" id="XVI"></a>XVI</h2> + +<h3>SUPERNATURAL COMMUNICATIONS IN WAR-TIME</h3> + + +<h4>1</h4> + +<p>In a volume entitled <i>The Unknown Guest</i>, published not long ago, +among other essays I devoted one in particular<a name="FNanchor_7_7" id="FNanchor_7_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_7_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a> to certain phenomena +of intuition, clairvoyance or clairaudience, vision at great distance +and even vision of the future. These phenomena were grouped together +under the somewhat unsuitable and none too well-constructed title of +"psychometry," which, to borrow Dr. Maxwell's excellent definition, is +"the faculty possessed by certain persons of placing themselves in +relation, either spontaneously or, for the most part, through the +intermediary of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[Pg 200]</a></span> some object, with unknown and often very distant +things and people."</p> + +<p>The existence of this faculty is no longer seriously denied by any one +who has given some little attention to metapsychics; and it is easily +verified by those who will take the necessary trouble, for its +possessors, though few in number, are not inaccessible. It has been +the subject of many experiments and of a few treatises, among which I +will name one by M. Duchatel, <i>Enquête sur des cas de psychométrie</i>, +and Dr. Osty's recent book, <i>Lucidité et intuition</i>, which is the most +complete and searching work that we have had upon this question until +now.</p> + +<p>Psychometry is one of the most curious faculties of our +subconsciousness and doubtless contains the clue to many of those +manifestations which appear to proceed from another world. Let us see, +with the aid of a living example, how it is employed.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[Pg 201]</a></span></p> + +<p>One of the best mediums of this class is a lady to whom I referred in +<i>The Unknown Guest</i> as Mme. M. Her visitor gives her an object of some +kind that has belonged to or been touched or handled by the person +about whom he proposes to question her. Mme. M. operates in a state of +trance; but there are other celebrated psychometers who retain all +their normal consciousness, so that the hypnotic or somnambulistic +state is not, generally speaking, by any means indispensable when we +wish to arouse this extraordinary clairvoyance.</p> + +<p>After placing the object, usually a letter, in the medium's hands, you +say to her:</p> + +<p>"I wish you to put yourself in communication with the writer of this +letter," or "the owner of this article," as the case may be.</p> + +<p>Forthwith the medium not only perceives the person in question, his +physical<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[Pg 202]</a></span> appearance, his character, his habits, his interests, his +state of health, but also, in a series of swift and changing visions +that follow one another like the pictures of a cinematograph, sees and +describes exactly that person's environment, the surrounding country, +the rooms in which he lives, the people who live with him and who wish +him well or ill, the mentality and the most secret and unexpected +intentions of all the various characters that figure in his existence. +If by means of your questions you direct her towards the past, she +traces the whole course of the subject's history. If you turn her +towards the future, she seems often to discover it as clearly as the +past.</p> + +<p>But here we must make certain reservations. We are entering upon +forbidden tracts; errors are almost the rule and proper supervision is +all but impossible. It is better therefore not to venture into those +dangerous regions. Pending fuller <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[Pg 203]</a></span>investigation of the question, we +may say that the foretelling of the future, when it claims to cover a +definite space of time, is nearly always illusory. There is scarcely +any accuracy of vision, except when the events concerned are very near +at hand, already developing or actually being consummated; and it then +becomes difficult to distinguish it from presentiments, which in their +turn are rarely true except where the immediate future is concerned. +To sum up, in the present state of our experience, we observe that +what the psychometers and clairvoyants foretell us possesses a certain +value and some chance of proving correct only in so far as they put +into words our own forebodings, forebodings which again may be quite +unknown to us and which they discover deep down in our subconsciousness. +They confine themselves—I speak of the genuine mediums—to bringing +to light and revealing to us our unconscious and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[Pg 204]</a></span>personal intuition +of an event that is hanging over us. But, when they venture to predict +a general event, such as the result of a war, an epidemic, an +earthquake, which does not interest ourselves exclusively or which is +too remote to come within the somewhat limited scope of our intuition, +they almost invariably deceive themselves and us.</p> + +<p>It is very difficult to fathom the nature of this intuition. Does it +relate to events partly or wholly realized, but still in a latent +state and perceived before the knowledge of them reaches us through +the normal channels of the mind or brain? Does our ever-watchful +instinct of self-preservation notice causes or traces which escape our +ever-inattentive and slumbering reason? Are we to believe in a sort of +autosuggestion that induces us to realize things which we have been +foretold or of which we have had presentiments? This is not the place +to examine so complex a problem,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[Pg 205]</a></span> which brings us into contact with +all the mysteries of subconsciousness and the preexistence of the +future.</p> + +<p>There remains another point to which it is well to draw attention in +order to avoid misunderstanding and disappointment. Experience shows +us that the medium perceives the person in question quite clearly, in +his present and usual state, but not necessarily in the exact +accidental state of the moment. She will tell you, for instance, that +she sees him ailing slightly, lying in a deck-chair in a garden of +such and such a kind, surrounded by certain flowers and petting a dog +of a certain size and breed. On enquiring, you will find that all +these details are strictly correct, with one exception, that at that +precise moment this person, who ordinarily spends his time in the +garden, was inside his house or calling on a neighbour. Mistakes in +time therefore are comparatively frequent and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[Pg 206]</a></span> simultaneity between +action and vision comparatively rare. In short, the habitual often +masks the accidental action. This, I insist, is a point of which we +must not lose sight, lest we ask of psychometry more than it is +obviously able to give us.</p> + + +<h4>2</h4> + +<p>Having said so much, is it open to us, amid all the mental anguish and +suffering which this terrible war has engendered, without profaning +the sorrow of our fellow-men and women, to give to those who are in +mortal fear as to the fate of some one whom they love the hope of +finding, among those extrahuman phenomena which have been unjustly and +falsely disparaged, a consoling gleam of light that shall not be a +mere mockery or delusion? I venture to declare—and I am doing so not +thoughtlessly, but after studying the problem with the conscientious +attention which it <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[Pg 207]</a></span>demands and after personally making a number of +experiments or causing them to be made under my supervision—I venture +to declare, without for a moment losing sight of the respect due to +grief, that we possess here, in these indisputable cases where no +normal mode of communication is possible, a strange but real and +serious source of information and comfort. I could mention a large +number of tests that have been made, so to speak, before my eyes by +absolutely trustworthy relatives or friends.</p> + +<p>As my space is limited, I will relate only one, which typifies and +summarizes all the others very fairly. A mother had three sons at the +front. She was hearing pretty regularly from the eldest and the +second; but for some weeks the youngest, who was in the Belgian +trenches, where the fighting was very fierce, had given no sign of +life. Wild with anxiety, she was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[Pg 208]</a></span> already mourning him as dead when +her friends advised her to consult Mme. M. The medium consoled her +with the first words that she spoke and told her that she saw her son +wounded, but in no danger whatever, that he was in a sort of shed +fitted up as a hospital, that he was being very well looked after by +people who spoke a different language, that for the time being he was +unable to write, which was a great worry to him, but that she would +receive a letter from him in a few days. The mother did, in fact, +receive a card from this son a few days later, worded a little stiffly +and curtly and written in an unnatural hand, telling her that all was +well and that he was in good health. Greatly relieved, she dismissed +the matter from her mind, merely said to herself that of course the +medium, like all mediums, had been wrong and thought no more of it. +But two or three messages following on the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[Pg 209]</a></span> first, all couched in +short, stilted phrases that seemed to be hiding something, ended by +alarming her so much that she was unable to bear the strain any longer +and entreated her son to tell her the whole truth, whatever it might +be. He then admitted that he had been wounded, though not seriously, +adding that he was in a sort of shed fitted up as a hospital, where he +was being capitally looked after by English doctors and nurses, in +short, just as the medium had seen him.</p> + +<p>I repeat, mediumistic experience can show other instances of this +kind. If it stood alone, it would be valueless, for it might well be +explained by mere coincidence. But it forms part of a very normal +series; and I could easily enumerate many others within my own +knowledge. This, however, would merely mean repeating, with +uninteresting variations, the essential<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[Pg 210]</a></span> features of the present case, +a proceeding for which there would be no excuse save in a technical +work.</p> + +<p>Is success then practically certain? Yes, rash and surprising though +the statement may seem, mistakes upon the whole are very rare, +provided that the medium be carefully chosen and that the object +serving as an intermediary have not passed through too many hands, for +it will contain and reveal as many distinct personalities as it has +undergone contacts. It will be necessary, therefore, first to +eliminate all these accessory personalities, so as to fix the medium's +attention solely on the subject of the consultation. On the other +hand, we must beware of calling for details which the nature of the +medium's vision does not allow her to give us. If asked, for instance, +about a soldier who is a prisoner in Germany, she will see the soldier +in question very plainly, will perceive his state of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[Pg 211]</a></span> health and mind, +the manner in which he is treated, his companions, the fortress or +group of huts in which he is interned, the appearance of the camp, of +the town, of the surrounding district; but she will very seldom indeed +be able to mention the name of the camp, town or district. In fact, +she can describe only what she sees; and, unless the town or camp have +a board bearing its name, there will be nothing to enable her to +identify it with sufficient accuracy. Let us add, lastly, that, with +mediums in a state of trance, who are not conscious of what they are +saying, we are exposed to terrible shocks. If they see death, they +announce the fact bluntly, without suspecting that they are in the +presence of a horror-stricken mother, wife or sister, so much so that, +in the case of Mme. M. particularly, it has been found necessary to +take certain precautions to obviate any such shock.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[Pg 212]</a></span></p> + + +<h4>3</h4> + +<p>Now what is the nature of this strange and incredible faculty? In the +book which I mentioned at the beginning of this article, I tried to +examine the different theories that suggested themselves. The +argument, unfortunately, is infinitely too long to be republished +here, even if I were to compress it ruthlessly. I will give merely a +brief summary of the conclusions, or rather of the attempted +conclusions, for the mystery, like most of the world's mysteries, is +probably unfathomable. After dismissing the spiritualistic theory, +which implies the intervention of the dead or of discarnate entities +and is not as ridiculous as the profane would think, but which nothing +hitherto has adequately confirmed, we may reasonably ask ourselves +first of all whether this faculty exists in us or in the medium. Does +it simply decipher, as is probably the case where the future is +concerned, the latent<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[Pg 213]</a></span> ideas, knowledge and certainties which we bear +within us, or does it alone, of its own initiative and independently +of us, perceive what it reveals to us? Experience seems to show that +we must adopt the latter hypothesis, for the vision appears just as +distinctly when the illuminating object is brought by a third person +who knows nothing and has never heard of the individual to whom the +object once belonged. It seems therefore almost certain that the +strange virtue is contained solely in the object itself, which is +somehow galvanized by a complementary virtue in the medium. This being +so, we must presume that the object, having absorbed like a sponge a +portion of the spirit of the person who touched it, remains in +constant communication with him, or, more probably, that it serves to +track out, among the prodigious throng of human beings, the one who +impregnated it with his fluid, even as the dogs<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[Pg 214]</a></span> employed by the +police—at least so we are told—when given an article of clothing to +smell, are able to distinguish, among innumerable cross-trails, that +of the man who used to wear the garment in question. It seems more and +more certain that, as cells of one vast organism, we are connected +with everything that exists by an infinitely intricate network of +waves, vibrations, influences, currents and fluids, all nameless, +numberless and unbroken. Nearly always, in nearly all men, everything +transmitted by these invisible threads falls into the depths of the +subconsciousness and passes unperceived, which is not the same as +saying that it remains inactive. But sometimes an exceptional +circumstance, such as, in the present case, the marvellous sensibility +of a first-rate medium, suddenly reveals to us the existence of the +infinite living network by the vibrations and the undeniable operation +of one of its threads.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[Pg 215]</a></span></p> + +<p>All this, I agree, sounds incredible, but really it is hardly any more +so than the wonders of radioactivity, of the Hertzian waves, of +photography, electricity or hypnotism, or of generation, which +condenses into a single particle all the physical, moral and +intellectual past and future of thousands of creatures. Our life would +be reduced to something very small indeed if we deliberately dismissed +from it all that our understanding is unable to embrace.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_7_7" id="Footnote_7_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7_7"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> Chap. ii.: "Psychometry."</p></div> +</div> + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[Pg 217]</a></span></p><hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="EDITH_CAVELL" id="EDITH_CAVELL"></a>EDITH CAVELL</h2> + + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[Pg 219]</a></span></p><hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="XVII" id="XVII"></a>XVII</h2> + +<h3>EDITH CAVELL<a name="FNanchor_8_8" id="FNanchor_8_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_8_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a></h3> + + +<h4>1</h4> + +<p>To-day, in honouring the memory of Miss Edith Cavell, we honour not +only the heroine who fell in the midst of her labours of love and +piety, we honour also those, wherever they may be, who have +accomplished or will yet accomplish the same sacrifice and who are +ready, in like circumstances, to face a like death.</p> + +<p>We are told by Thucydides that the Athenians of the age of +Pericles—who, to the honour of humanity be it said, had nothing in +common with the Athenians of to-day—were accustomed, each winter +during their great war, to celebrate at the cost of the State the +obsequies of those who had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[Pg 220]</a></span> perished in the recent campaign. The bones +of the dead, arranged according to their tribes, were exhibited under +a tent and honoured for three days. In the midst of this host of the +known dead stood an empty bed, covered with tapestry and dedicated to +"the Invisible," that is, to those whose bodies it had been impossible +to recover. Let us too, before all else, in the quiet of this hall, +where none but almost religious words may be heard, raise in our midst +such an altar, a sacred and mysterious altar, to the invisible +heroines of this war, that is to say, to all those who have died an +obscure death and have left no traces and also to those who are yet +living, whose sacrifices and sufferings will never be told. Here, with +the eyes of the spirit, let us gaze upon all the heroic deeds of which +we know; but let us reserve an honoured place for those, incomparably +more numerous and perhaps more beautiful, of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[Pg 221]</a></span> which we as yet know +nothing and, above all, for those of which we shall never know, for +glory has its injustices even as death has its fatalities.</p> + + +<h4>2</h4> + +<p>Yet it is hardly probable that among these sacrifices we shall discern +any more admirable than that of Miss Edith Cavell. I need not recall +the circumstances of her death, for they are well-known to everybody +and will never be forgotten. Destiny left nothing undone for the +purest glory to emerge from the deepest shadow. In the depths of that +shadow it concentrated all imaginable hatred, horror, villainy, +cowardice and infamy, so that all pity, all innocent courage and +mercy, all well-doing and all sweet charity might shine forth above +it, as though to show us how low men may sink and how high a woman can +rise, as though its express and visible intention had been to trace, +with a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[Pg 222]</a></span> single gesture, amid all the sorrows and the rare beauties of +this war, an outstanding and incomparable example which should at the +same time be an immortal and consoling symbol.</p> + + +<h4>3</h4> + +<p>And one would say that destiny had taken pains to make this symbol as +truthful and as general as possible. It did not select a dazzling and +warlike heroine, as it would have done in the days of old: a Judith, a +Lucretia, nor even a Joan of Arc. There was no need of resounding +words, of splendid raiment, of tragic attitudes and accessories, of an +imposing background. The beauty which we find so touching has grown +simpler; it makes less stir and wins closer to our heart. And this is +why destiny sought out in obscurity a little hospital nurse, one of +many thousands of others. The sight of her unpretentious portrait does +not tell one whether she was rich or<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[Pg 223]</a></span> poor, a humble member of the +middle classes or a great lady. She would pass unnoticed anywhere +until the hour of trial, when glory recognizes its elect; and it seems +as though goodness had almost eliminated the individual contours of +her face, so that it might the more closely resemble the pensive and +sad smiling faces of all the good women in the world.</p> + +<p>Beneath those features one might indeed have read the hidden devotion +and quiet heroism of all the women who do their duty, that is, of +those whom we see about us day by day, working, hoping, keeping vigil, +solacing and succouring others, wearing themselves out without +complaint, suffering in secret and mourning their dead in silence.</p> + + +<h4>4</h4> + +<p>She passed like a flash of light which for one moment illumined that +vast and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[Pg 224]</a></span>innumerable multitude, confirming our confidence and our +admiration. She has added a final beauty to the great revelations of +this war; for the war, which has taught us many things that will never +fade from our memory, has above all revealed us to ourselves. In the +first days of the terrible ordeal, we did not know for certain how men +and women would comport themselves. In vain did we interrogate the +past, hoping thereby to learn something of the future. There was no +past that would serve for a comparison. Our eyes were drawn back to +the present; and we closed them, full of uneasiness. In what condition +should we find ourselves facing duty, sacrifice, suffering and death, +after so many years of peace, well-being and pleasure, of heedlessness +and moral indifference? What had been the vast and invisible journey +of the human conscience and of those secret forces which are the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[Pg 225]</a></span> +whole of man, during this long respite, when they had never been +called upon to confront fate? Were they asleep, were they weakened or +lost, would they respond to the call of destiny, or had they sunk so +deep that they would never recover the energy to ascend to the surface +of life? There was a moment of anguish and silence; and lo, suddenly, +in the midst of this anguish and silence, the most splendid response, +the most magnificent cry of resurrection, of righteousness, of heroism +and sacrifice that the earth has ever heard since it began to roll +along the paths of space and time! They were still there, the ideal +forces! They were mounting upward, on every side, from the depths of +all those swiftly-assembling souls, not merely intact but more than +ever radiant, more than ever pure, more numerous and mightier than +ever! To the amazement of all of us, who possessed them without +knowing it,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[Pg 226]</a></span> they had increased in strength and stature while +apparently neglected and forgotten.</p> + +<p>To-day there is no longer any doubt. We may expect all things and hope +all things from the men and the women who have surmounted this long +and grievous trial. If the heroism displayed by man on the battlefield +has never been comparable with that which is being lavished at this +moment, we may also say of the women that their heroism is even more +beyond comparison. We knew that a certain number of men were capable +of giving their lives for their country, for their faith or for a +generous ideal; but we did not realize that all would wrestle with +death for endless months, in great unanimous masses; and above all we +did not imagine, or perhaps we had to some extent forgotten, since the +days of the great martyrs, that woman was ready with the same gift of +self, the same patience, the same sacrifices,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[Pg 227]</a></span> the same greatness of +soul and was about—less perhaps in blood than in tears, for it is +always on her that sorrow ends by falling—to prove herself the rival +and the peer of man.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_8_8" id="Footnote_8_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_8_8"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> Delivered in Paris, at the Trocadéro, 18 December, 1915.</p></div> +</div> + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[Pg 229]</a></span></p><hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="THE_LIFE_OF_THE_DEAD" id="THE_LIFE_OF_THE_DEAD"></a>THE LIFE OF THE DEAD</h2> + + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[Pg 231]</a></span></p><hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="XVIII" id="XVIII"></a>XVIII</h2> + +<h3>THE LIFE OF THE DEAD</h3> + + +<h4>1</h4> + +<p>The other day I went to see a woman whom I knew before the war—she +was happy then—and who had lost her only son in one of the battles in +the Argonne. She was a widow, almost a poor woman; and, now that this +son, her pride and her joy, was no more, she no longer had any reason +for living. I hesitated to knock at her door. Was I not about to +witness one of those hopeless griefs at whose feet all words fall to +the ground like shameful and insulting lies? Which of us to-day is not +familiar with these mournful interviews, this dismal duty?</p> + +<p>To my great astonishment, she offered me her hand with a kindly smile. +Her<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[Pg 232]</a></span> eyes, to which I hardly dared raise my own, were free of tears.</p> + +<p>"You have come to speak to me of him," she said, in a cheerful tone; +and it was as though her voice had grown younger.</p> + +<p>"Alas, yes! I had heard of your <a name="sorrow" id="sorrow"></a>sorrow; and I have come...."</p> + +<p>"Yes, I too believed that my unhappiness was irreparable; but now I +know that he is not dead."</p> + +<p>"What! He is not dead? Do you mean that the news...? But I thought +that the body...."</p> + +<p>"Yes, his body is down there; and I have even a photograph of his +grave. Let me show it to you. See, that cross on the left, the fourth +cross: that is where they have laid him. One of his friends, who +buried him, sent me this card, with all the details. He did not suffer +any pain. There was not even a death-struggle. And he has told me so +himself. He is quite astonished that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[Pg 233]</a></span> death should be so easy, so +slight a thing.... You do not understand? Yes, I see what it is: you +are just as I used to be, as all the others are. I do not explain the +matter to the others; what would be the use? They do not wish to +understand. But you, you will understand. He is more alive than he +ever was; he is free and happy. He does just as he likes. He tells me +that one cannot imagine what a release death is, what a weight it +removes from you, nor the joy which it brings. He comes to see me when +I call him. He loves especially to come in the evening; and we chat as +we used to do. He has not altered; he is just as he was on the day +when he went away, only younger, stronger, handsomer. We have never +been happier, or more united, or nearer to one another. He divines my +thoughts before I utter them. He knows everything; he sees everything; +but he cannot tell me <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[Pg 234]</a></span>everything he knows. He says that I must be +wanting to follow him and that I must wait for my hour. And, while I +wait, we are living in happiness greater than that which was ours +before the war, a happiness which nothing can ever trouble again...."</p> + +<p>Those about her pitied the poor woman; and, as she did not weep, as +she was gay and smiling, they believed her mad.</p> + + +<h4>2</h4> + +<p>Was she as mad as they thought? At the present moment, the great +questions of the world beyond the grave are pressing upon us from +every side. It is probable that, since the world began, there have +never been so many dead as now. The empire of death was never so +mighty, so terrible; it is for us to defend and enlarge the empire of +life. In the presence of this mother, which are right or wrong, those<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[Pg 235]</a></span> +who are convinced that their dead are forever swept out of existence, +or those who are persuaded that their dead do not cease to live, who +believe that they see them and hear them? Do we know what it is that +dies in our dead, or even if anything dies? Whatever our religious +faith may be, there is at any rate one place where they cannot die. +That place is within ourselves; and, if this unhappy mother went +beyond the truth, she was yet nearer to it than those despairing ones +who nourish the mournful certainty that nothing survives of those whom +they loved. She felt too keenly what we do not feel keenly enough. She +remembered too much; and we do not know how to remember. Between the +two errors there is room for a great truth; and, if we have to choose, +hers is the error towards which we should lean. Let us learn to +acquire through reason that which a wise madness bestowed on her. Let +us<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[Pg 236]</a></span> learn from her to live with our dead and to live with them without +sadness and without terror. They do not ask for tears, but for a happy +and confident affection. Let us learn from her to resuscitate those +whom we regret. She called to hers, while we repulse ours; we are +afraid of them and are surprised that they lose heart and pale and +fade away and leave us forever. They need love as much as do the +living. <a name="They" id="They"></a>They die, not at the moment when they sink into the grave, but +gradually as they sink into oblivion; and it is oblivion alone that +makes the separation irrevocable. We should not allow it to heap +itself above them. It would be enough to vouchsafe them each day a +single one of those thoughts which we bestow uncounted upon so many +useless objects: they would no longer think of leaving us; they would +remain around us and we should no longer understand what a tomb is; +for there is no tomb, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[Pg 237]</a></span>however deep, whose stone may not be raised and +whose dust dispersed by a thought.</p> + +<p>There would be no difference between the living and the dead if we but +knew how to remember. There would be no more dead. The best of what +they were dwells with us after fate has taken them from us; all their +past is ours; and it is wider than the present, more certain than the +future. Material presence is not everything in this world; and we can +dispense with it and yet not despair. We do not mourn those who live +in lands which we shall never visit, because we know that it depends +on us whether we go to find them. Let it be the same with our dead. +Instead of believing that they have disappeared never to return, tell +yourselves that they are in a country to which you yourself will +assuredly go soon; a country not so very far away. And, while waiting +for the time when you will go there once and for all,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[Pg 238]</a></span> you may visit +them in thought as easily as if they were still in a region inhabited +by the living. The memory of the dead is even more alive than that of +the living; it is as though they were assisting our memory, as though +they, on their side, were making a mysterious effort to join hands +with us on ours. One feels that they are far more powerful than the +absent who continue to breathe as we do.</p> + + +<h4>3</h4> + +<p>Try then to recall those whom you have lost, before it is too late, +before they have gone too far; and you will see that they will come +much closer to your heart, that they will belong to you more truly, +that they are as real as when they were in the flesh. In putting off +this last, they have but discarded the moments in which they loved us +least or in which we did not love at all. Now they are pure; they are<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[Pg 239]</a></span> +clothed only in the fairest hours of life; they no longer possess +faults, littlenesses, oddities; they can no longer fall away, or +deceive themselves, or give us pain. They care for nothing now but to +smile upon us, to encompass us with love, to bring us a happiness +drawn without stint from a past which they live again beside us.</p> + + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[Pg 241]</a></span></p><hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="THE_WAR_AND_THE_PROPHETS" id="THE_WAR_AND_THE_PROPHETS"></a>THE WAR AND THE PROPHETS</h2> + + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[Pg 243]</a></span></p><hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="XIX" id="XIX"></a>XIX</h2> + +<h3>THE WAR AND THE PROPHETS</h3> + + +<p>At the end of an essay occurring in <i>The Unknown Guest</i> and entitled, +<i>The Knowledge of the Future</i>, in which I examined a certain number of +phenomena relating to the anticipatory perception of events, such as +presentiments, premonitions, precognitions, predictions, etc., I +concluded in nearly the following terms:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"To sum up, if it is difficult for us to conceive that the +future preexists, perhaps it is just as difficult for us to +understand that it does not exist; moreover, many facts tend +to prove that it is as real and definite and has, both in +time and eternity, the same permanence and the same +vividness as the past. Now, from the moment that it +preexists, it is not surprising that <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[Pg 244]</a></span>we should be able to +know it; it is even astonishing, granted that it overhangs +us from every side, that we should not discover it oftener +and more easily."</p></div> + +<p>Above all is it astonishing and almost inconceivable that this +universal war, the most stupendous catastrophe that has overwhelmed +humanity since the origin of things, should not, while it was +approaching, bearing in its womb innumerable woes which were about to +affect almost every one of us, have thrown upon us more plainly, from +the recesses of those days in which it was making ready, its menacing +shadow. One would think that it ought to have overcast the whole +horizon of the future, even as it will overcast the whole horizon of +the past. A secret of such weight, suspended in time, ought surely to +have weighed upon all our lives; and presentiments or revelations +should<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[Pg 245]</a></span> have arisen on every hand. There was none of these. We lived +and moved without uneasiness beneath the disaster which, from year to +year, from day to day, from hour to hour, was descending upon the +world; and we perceived it only when it touched our heads. True, it +was more or less foreseen by our reason; but our reason hardly +believed in it; and besides I am not for the moment speaking of the +inductions of the understanding, which are always uncertain and which +are resigned beforehand to the capricious contradictions which they +are accustomed daily to receive from facts.</p> + + +<h4>2</h4> + +<p>But I repeat, beside or above these inductions of our everyday logic, +in the less familiar domain of supernatural intuitions, of divination, +prediction or prophecy properly so-called, we find that there was +practically nothing to warn us of the vast peril.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[Pg 246]</a></span> This does not mean +that there was any lack of predictions or prophecies collected after +the event; these number, it appears, no fewer than eighty-three; but +none of them, excepting those of Léon Sonrel and the Rector of Ars, +which we will examine in a moment, is worthy of serious discussion. I +shall therefore mention, by way of a reminder, only the most widely +known; and, first of all, the famous prophecy of Mayence or Strasburg, +which is supposed to have been discovered by a certain Jecker in an +ancient convent founded near Mayence by St. Hildegard, of which the +original text could not be found and of which no one until lately had +ever heard. Then there is another prophecy of Mayence or Fiensberg, +published in the <i>Neue Metaphysische Rundschau</i> of Berlin in February, +1912, in which the end of the German Empire is announced for the year +1913. Next, we have various predictions uttered by<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[Pg 247]</a></span> Mme. de Thèbes, by +Dom Bosco, by the Blessed Andrew Bobola, by Korzenicki, the Polish +monk, by Tolstoy, by Brother Hermann and so on, which are even less +interesting; and lastly the prophecy of "Brother Johannes," published +by M. Joséphin Peladan in the <i>Figaro</i> of 16 September, 1914, which +contains no evidence of genuineness and must therefore meanwhile be +regarded merely as an ingenious literary conceit.</p> + + +<h4><a name="three" id="three"></a>3</h4> + +<p>All these, on examination, leave but a worthless residuum; but the +prophecies of the Rector of Ars and of Léon Sonrel are more curious +and worthy of a moment's attention.</p> + +<p>Father Jean-Baptiste Vianney, Rector of Ars, was, as everybody knows, +a very saintly priest, who appears to have been endowed with +extraordinary <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[Pg 248]</a></span>mediumistic faculties. The prophecy in question was +made public in 1862, three years after the miracle-worker's death, and +was confirmed by a letter which Mgr. Perriet addressed to the Very +Rev. Dom Gréa on the 24th of February, 1908. Moreover, it was printed, +as far back as 1872, in a collection entitled, <i>Voix prophétiques, ou +signes, apparitions et prédictions modernes</i>. It therefore has an +incontestable date. I pass over the part relating to the war of 1870, +which does not offer the same safeguards; but I give that which +concerns the present war, quoting from the 1872 text:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"The enemies will not go altogether; they will return again +and destroy everything upon their passage; we shall not +resist them, but will allow them to advance; and after that +we shall cut off their provisions and make them suffer great +losses. They will retreat towards their country; <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[Pg 249]</a></span>we shall +follow them and there will be hardly any who return home. +Then we shall take back all that they took from us and much +more."</p></div> + +<p>As for the date of the event, it is stated definitely and rather +strikingly in these words:</p> + +<p>"They will want to canonize me, but there will not be time."</p> + +<p>Now the preliminaries to the canonization of Father Vianney were begun +in July, 1914, but abandoned because of the war.</p> + +<p>I now come to the Sonrel prediction. I will summarize it as briefly as +possible from the admirable article which M. de Vesme devoted to it in +the <i>Annales des sciences psychiques</i>.<a name="FNanchor_9_9" id="FNanchor_9_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_9_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a></p> + +<p>On the 3rd of June, 1914—observe the date—Professor Charles Richet +handed M. de Vesme, from Dr. Amédée Tardieu, a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[Pg 250]</a></span> manuscript of which +the following is the substance: on the 23rd or 24th of July, 1869, Dr. +Tardieu was strolling in the gardens of the Luxembourg with his friend +Léon Sonrel, a former pupil of the Higher Normal School and teacher of +natural philosophy at the Paris Observatory, when the latter had a +kind of vision in the course of which he predicted various precise and +actual episodes of the war of 1870, such as the collection on behalf +of the wounded at the moment of departure and the amount of the sum +collected in the soldiers' képis; incidents of the journey to the +frontier; the battle of Sedan, the rout of the French, the civil war, +the siege of Paris, his own death, the birth of a posthumous child, +the doctor's political career and so on: predictions all of which were +verified, as is attested by numerous witnesses who are worthy of the +fullest credence. But I will pass over this part of the story and +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[Pg 251]</a></span>consider only that portion which refers to the present war:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"I have been waiting for two years," to quote the text of +Dr. Tardieu's manuscript of the 3rd of June, "for the sequel +of the prediction which you are about to read. I omit +everything that concerns my friend Léon's family and my +private affairs. Yet there is in my life at this moment a +personal matter, which, as always happens, agrees too +closely with general occurrences for me to doubt what +follows:</p> + +<p>"'O my God! My country is lost: France is dead!... What a +disaster!... Ah, see, she is saved! She extends to the +Rhine! O France, O my beloved country, you are triumphant; +you are the queen of nations!... Your genius shines forth +over the world.... All the earth wonders at you....'"</p></div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[Pg 252]</a></span></p> + +<p>These are the words contained in the document written at the Mont-Doré +on the 3rd and handed to M. de Vesme on the 13th of June 1914, at a +moment when no one was thinking of the terrible war which to-day is +ravaging half the world.</p> + +<p>When questioned, after the declaration of war, by M. de Vesme on the +subject of the prophetic phrase, "I have been waiting for two years +for the sequel of the prediction which you are about to read," Dr. +Tardieu replied, on the 12th of August:</p> + +<p>"I have been waiting for two years; and I will tell you why. My friend +Léon did not name the year, but the more general events are described +simultaneously with the events of my own life. Now the events which +concern me privately and which were doubtful two years ago became +certain in April or May last. My friends<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[Pg 253]</a></span> know that since May last I +have been announcing war as due before September, basing my prediction +on coincidences with events in my private life of which I do not +speak."</p> + + +<h4>4</h4> + +<p>These, up to the present, are the only prophecies known to us that +deserve any particular attention. The prediction in both is timid and +laconic; but, in those regions where the least gleam of light assumes +extraordinary importance, it is not to be neglected. I admit, for the +rest, that there has so far been no time to carry out a serious +enquiry on this point, but I should be greatly surprised if any such +enquiry gave positive results and if it did not allowed us to state +that the gigantic event, as a whole, as a general event, was neither +foreseen nor divined. On the other hand, we shall probably learn, when +the enquiry is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[Pg 254]</a></span> completed, that hundreds of deaths, accidents, wounds +and cases of individual ruin and misfortune, included in the great +disaster, were predicted by clairvoyants, by mediums, by dreams and by +every other manner of premonition with a definiteness sufficient to +eliminate any kind of doubt. I have said elsewhere what I think of +individual predictions of this kind, which seem to be no more than the +reading of the presentiments which we carry within us, presentiments +which themselves, in the majority of cases, are but the perception, by +the as yet imperfectly known senses of our subconsciousness, of +events, in course of formation or in process of realization, which +escape the attention of our understanding. However, it would still +remain to be explained how a wholly accidental death or wound could be +perceived by these subliminal senses as an event in course of +formation. In any case, it would once more be <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[Pg 255]</a></span>confirmed, after this +great test, that the knowledge of the future, so soon as it ceases to +refer to a strictly personal fact and one, moreover, not at all +remote, is always illusory, or rather impossible.</p> + +<p>Apart then from these strictly personal cases, which for the moment we +will agree to set aside, it appears more than ever certain that there +is no communication between ourselves and the vast store of events +which have not yet occurred and which nevertheless seem already to +exist at some place where they await the hour to advance upon us, or +rather the moment when we shall pass before them. As for the +exceptional and precarious infiltrations which belong not merely to +the present that is still unknown, veiled or disguised, but really to +the future, apart from the two which we have just examined, which are +inconclusive, I for my part know of but four or five that appear to be +rigorously verified; and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[Pg 256]</a></span> these I have discussed in the essay already +mentioned. For that matter, they have no bearing upon the present war. +They are, when all is said, so exceptional that they do not prove +much; at the most, they seem to confirm the idea that a store exists +filled with future events as real, as distinct and as immutable as +those of the past; and they allow us to hope that there are paths +leading thither which as yet we do not know, but which it will not be +for ever impossible to discover.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_9_9" id="Footnote_9_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_9_9"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> August, September and October, 1915.</p></div> +</div> + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[Pg 257]</a></span></p><hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="THE_WILL_OF_EARTH" id="THE_WILL_OF_EARTH"></a>THE WILL OF EARTH</h2> + + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[Pg 259]</a></span></p><hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="XX" id="XX"></a>XX</h2> + +<h3>THE WILL OF EARTH</h3> + + +<h4>1</h4> + +<p>To-day's conflict is but a revival of that which has not ceased to +drench the west of Europe in blood since the historical birth of the +continent. The two chief episodes in the conflict, as we all know, are +the invasion of Roman Gaul, including the north of Italy, by the +Franks and the successive conquests of England by the Anglo-Saxons and +the Normans. Without delaying to consider questions of race, which are +complex, uncertain and always open to discussion, we may, regarding +the matter from another aspect, perceive in the persistency and the +bitterness of this conflict the clash of two wills, of which one or +the other succumbs for a moment, only to rise up again with increased +energy and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[Pg 260]</a></span> obstinacy. On the one hand is the will of earth or nature, +which, in the human species as in all others, openly favours brute or +physical force; and on the other hand is the will of humanity, or at +least of a portion of humanity, which seeks to establish the empire of +other more subtle and less animal forces. It is incontestable that +hitherto the former has always won the day. But it is equally +incontestable that its victory has always been only apparent and of +brief duration. It has regularly suffered defeat in its very triumph. +Gaul, invaded and overrun, presently absorbs her victor, even as +England little by little transforms her conquerors. On the morrow of +victory, the instruments of the will of earth turn upon her and arm +the hand of the vanquished. It is probable that the same phenomenon +would recur once more to-day, were events to follow the course +prescribed by destiny. Germany,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[Pg 261]</a></span> after crushing and enslaving the +greater part of Europe, after driving her back and burdening her with +innumerable woes, would end by turning against the will which she +represents; and that will, which until to-day had always found in this +race a docile tool and its favourite accomplices, would be forced to +seek these elsewhere, a task less easy than of old.</p> + + +<h4>2</h4> + +<p>But now, to the amazement of all those who will one day consider them +in cold blood, events are suddenly ascending the irresistible current +and, for the first time since we have been in a position to observe +it, the adverse will is encountering an unexpected and insurmountable +resistance. If this resistance, as we can now no longer doubt, +maintains itself victoriously to the end, there will never perhaps +have been such a sudden change in the history of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[Pg 262]</a></span>mankind; for man +will have gained, over the will of earth or nature or fatality, a +triumph infinitely more significant, more heavily fraught with +consequences and perhaps more decisive than all those which, in other +provinces, appear to have crowned his efforts more brilliantly.</p> + +<p>Let us not then be surprised that this resistance should be +stupendous, or that it should be prolonged beyond anything that our +experience of wars has taught us to expect. It was our prompt and easy +defeat that was written in the annals of destiny. We had against us +all the force accumulated since the birth of Europe. We have to set +history revolving in the reverse direction. We are on the point of +succeeding; and, if it be true that intelligent beings watch us from +the vantage-point of other worlds, they will assuredly witness the +most curious spectacle that our planet has offered them since they +discovered it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[Pg 263]</a></span> amid the dust of stars that glitters in space around +it. They must be telling themselves in amazement that the ancient and +fundamental laws of earth are suddenly being transgressed.</p> + + +<h4>3</h4> + +<p>Suddenly? That is going too far. This transgression of a lower law, +which was no longer of the stature of mankind, had been preparing for +a very long time; but it was within an ace of being hideously +punished. It succeeded only by the aid of a part of those who formerly +swelled the great wave which they are to-day resisting by our side, as +though something in the history of the world or the plans of destiny +had altered, or rather as though we ourselves had at last succeeded in +altering that something and in modifying laws to which until this day +we were wholly subject.</p> + +<p>But it must not be thought that the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[Pg 264]</a></span>conflict will end with the +victory. The deep-seated forces of earth will not be at once disarmed; +for a long time to come the invisible war will be waged under the +reign of peace. If we are not careful, victory may even be more +disastrous to us than defeat. For defeat, indeed, like previous +defeats, would have been merely a victory postponed. It would have +absorbed, exhausted, dispersed the enemy, by scattering him about the +world, whereas our victory will bring upon us a twofold peril. It will +leave the enemy in a state of savage isolation in which, thrown back +upon himself, cramped, purified by misfortune and poverty, he will +secretly reinforce his formidable virtues, while we, for our part, no +longer held in check by his unbearable but salutary menace, will give +rein to failings and vices which sooner or later will place us at his +mercy. Before thinking of peace, then, we must make sure of the future +and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[Pg 265]</a></span> render it powerless to injure us. We cannot take too many +precautions, for we are setting ourselves against the manifest desire +of the power that bears us.</p> + +<p>This is why our efforts are difficult and worthy of praise. We are +setting ourselves—we cannot too often repeat it—against the will of +earth. Our enemies are urged forward by a force that drives us back. +They are marching with nature, whereas we are striving against the +great current that sweeps the globe. The earth has an idea, which is +no longer ours. She remains convinced that man is an animal in all +things like other animals. She has not yet observed that he is +withdrawing himself from the herd. She does not yet know that he has +climbed her highest mountain-peaks. She has not yet heard tell of +justice, pity, loyalty and honour; she does not realize what they are, +or confounds them with weakness, clumsiness, fear and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[Pg 266]</a></span>stupidity. She +has stopped short at the original certitudes which were indispensable +to the beginnings of life. She is lagging behind us; and the interval +that divides us is rapidly increasing. She thinks less quickly; she +has not yet had time to understand us. Moreover, she does not reckon +as we do; and for her the centuries are less than our years. She is +slow because she is almost eternal, while we are prompt because we +have not many hours before us. It may be that one day her thought will +overtake ours; in the meantime, we have to vindicate our advance and +to prove to ourselves, as we are beginning to do, that it is lawful to +be in the right as against her, that our advance is not fatal and that +it is possible to maintain it.</p> + + +<h4>4</h4> + +<p>For it is becoming difficult to argue that earth or nature is always +right and that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[Pg 267]</a></span> those who do not blindly follow earth's impulse are +necessarily doomed to perish. We have learnt to observe her more +attentively and we have won the right to judge her. We have discovered +that, far from being infallible, she is continually making mistakes. +She gropes and hesitates. She does not know precisely what she wants. +She begins by making stupendous blunders. She first peoples the world +with uncouth and incoherent monsters, not one of which is capable of +living; these all disappear. Gradually she acquires, at the cost of +the life which she creates, an experience that is the cruel fruit of +the immeasurable suffering which she unfeelingly inflicts. At last she +grows wiser, curbs and amends herself, corrects herself, returns upon +her footsteps, repairs her errors, expending her best energies and her +highest intelligence upon the correction. It is incontestable that she +is improving her <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[Pg 268]</a></span>methods, that she is more skillful, more prudent, +less extravagant than at the outset. And yet the fact remains that, in +every department of life, in every organism, down to our own bodies, +there is a survival of bad workmanship, of twofold functions, of +oversights, changes of intention, absurdities, useless complications +and meaningless waste. We therefore have no reason to believe that our +enemies are in the right because earth is with them. Earth does not +possess the truth any more than we do. She seeks it, even as we do, +and discovers it no more readily. She seems to know no more than we +whither she is going nor whither she is being led by that which leads +all things. We must not listen to her without enquiry; and we need not +distress ourselves or despair because we are not of her opinion. We +are not dealing with an infallible and unchangeable wisdom, to oppose +which in our<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[Pg 269]</a></span> thoughts would be madness. We are actually proving to +her that it is she who is in the wrong; that man's reason for +existence is loftier than that which she provisionally assigned to +him; that he is already outstripping all that she foresaw; and that +she does wrong to delay his advance. She is, for that matter, full of +goodwill, is able on occasion to recognize her mistakes and to obviate +their disastrous results and by no means takes refuge in majestic and +inflexible self-conceit. If we are able to persevere, we shall be able +to convince her. This will take much time, for, I repeat, she is slow, +though in no wise obstinate. It will take much time because a very +long future is in question, a very great change and the most important +victory that man has ever hoped to win.</p> + + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[Pg 271]</a></span></p><hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="FOR_POLAND" id="FOR_POLAND"></a>FOR POLAND</h2> + + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[Pg 273]</a></span></p><hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="XXI" id="XXI"></a>XXI</h2> + +<h3>FOR POLAND</h3> + + +<h4>1</h4> + +<p>The Allies have entered into a solemn compact that none of them will +conclude a separate peace. They undertook recently, by an equally +irrevocable convention, that they would not lay down their arms until +Belgium was delivered. These two acts, one of prudence, the other of +elementary justice, appear at first sight superfluous. Yet they were +necessary. It is well that nations, even more than men, because their +conscience is less stable, should secure themselves against the +mistakes and weakness and ingratitude which too often accompany strife +and which even more often follow victory. To-morrow they will do for +Servia what they have done in the case of Belgium; but there is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">[Pg 274]</a></span> a +third victim, of whom too little is said, who has the same rights as +the other two; and to forget her would forever attaint the honour and +the justice of those who took up arms only in the name of justice and +honour.</p> + + +<h4>2</h4> + +<p>I need not recall the fate of Poland. It is in certain respects more +tragic and more pitiful than that of Belgium or of Servia. She had not +even the opportunity to choose between dishonour and annihilation.</p> + +<p>Three successive acts of injustice, which were, until to-day, the most +shameful recorded by history, deprived her of the glory of that heroic +choice which she would have made in the same spirit, for she had +already thrice made it in the past, a choice which this day sustains +and consoles her two martyred sisters in their profoundest +tribulations. It would be too unjust if an ancient injustice, which +even yet weighs<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[Pg 275]</a></span> upon the memory and the conscience of Europe, should +become the sole reason of yet a last iniquity, which this time would +be inexpiable.</p> + + +<h4>3</h4> + +<p>True, the Grand-duke Nicolas made noble and generous promises to +Poland; and these promises were repeated at the opening of the Duma. +This is good and shows the irresistible force of the awakening +conscience of a great empire; but it is not enough. Such promises +involve only those who make them; they do not bind a nation. We will +not insult Russia by doubting her intentions; but among all the +certainties which history teaches us there is one that has been +acquired once and for all; and this is that in politics and +international morality intentions count for nothing and that a +promise, made by no matter what nations, will be kept only if those +who make it also render it impossible for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[Pg 276]</a></span> themselves to do otherwise +than keep it. For the rest, the question at present is not one of +intentions, nor confidence, nor pity, nor even of interest. Others +have spoken and will speak again, better than I could, of Poland's +terrible distress and of the danger, which is far more formidable and +far more imminent than is generally believed, of those German +intrigues which are seeking to seduce from us and, despite themselves, +to turn against us twenty millions of desperate people and nearly a +million soldiers, who will die, perhaps, rather than join our enemies, +but who, in any case, cannot fight in our ranks as they would have +done had the word for which they are waiting in their anguish been +spoken before it was too late.</p> + + +<h4>4</h4> + +<p>But, however grave the peril, we are, I repeat, far less concerned +with this at the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">[Pg 277]</a></span> present moment than with the question of justice. +Poland has an absolute and sacred right to be treated even as the +other two victims of this war of justice. She is their equal, she is +of the same rank and on the same level. She has suffered what they +have suffered, for the same cause, in the same spirit and with the +same heroism; and if she has not done what the two others have done it +is because only the ingratitude of all those whom she had more than +once saved, together with one of the greatest crimes in history, +prevented her from doing so.</p> + +<p>It is time for the Europe of to-day to repair the iniquity committed +by the Europe of other days. We are nothing, we are no better than our +enemies, we have no title to deliver millions of innocent men to +death, unless we stand for justice. The idea of justice alone must +rule all that we undertake, for we are united, we have risen<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">[Pg 278]</a></span> and we +exist only in its name. At this moment we occupy all the pinnacles of +this justice, to which we have brought such an impulse, such +sacrifices and such heroism as we shall perhaps never behold again. We +shall never rise higher; let us then form at this present time +resolutions which will forbid us to descend; and Europe would descend, +to a depth greater than was hers in the unpardonable hour of the +partition of Poland, did she not before all else repair the immense +fault which she committed when she had not yet discovered her +conscience and did not yet know what she knows to-day.</p> + + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">[Pg 279]</a></span></p><hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="THE_MIGHT_OF_THE_DEAD" id="THE_MIGHT_OF_THE_DEAD"></a>THE MIGHT OF THE DEAD</h2> + + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">[Pg 281]</a></span></p><hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="XXII" id="XXII"></a>XXII</h2> + +<h3>THE MIGHT OF THE DEAD</h3> + + +<h4>1</h4> + +<p>In <i>A Beleaguered City</i>, a little book which, in its curious way, is a +masterpiece, Mrs. Oliphant shows us the dead of a provincial town +suddenly waxing indignant over the conduct and the morals of those +inhabiting the town which they had founded. They rise up in rebellion, +invest the houses, the streets, the market-places and, by the pressure +of their innumerable multitude, all-powerful though invisible, repulse +the living, thrust them out of doors and, setting a strict watch, +permit them to return to their roof-trees only after a treaty of peace +and penitence has purified their<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">[Pg 282]</a></span> hearts, atoned for their offences +and ensured a more worthy future.</p> + +<p>There is undoubtedly a great truth beneath this fiction, which appears +too far-fetched because we perceive only material and ephemeral +realities. The dead live and move in our midst far more really and +effectually than the most venturesome imagination could depict. It is +very doubtful whether they remain in their graves. It even seems +increasingly certain that they never allowed themselves to be confined +there. Under the tombstones where we believe them to lie imprisoned +there are only a few ashes, which are no longer theirs, which they +have abandoned without regret and which, in all probability, they no +longer deign to remember. All that was themselves continues to have +its being in our midst. How and under what aspect? After all these +thousands, perhaps millions, of years, we do not yet know; and no<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">[Pg 283]</a></span> +religion has been able to tell us with satisfying certainty, though +all have striven to do so; but we may, by means of certain tokens, +hope to learn.</p> + +<p>Without further considering a mighty but obscure truth, which it is +for the moment impossible to state precisely or to render palpable, +let us concern ourselves with one which cannot be disputed. As I have +said elsewhere, whatever our religious faith may be, there is in any +case one place where our dead cannot perish, where they continue to +exist as really as when they were in the flesh and often more +actively; and this living abiding-place, this consecrated spot, which +for those whom we have lost becomes heaven or hell according as we +draw close to or depart from their thoughts and their desires, is in +us.</p> + +<p>And their thoughts and their desires are always higher than our own. +It is, therefore, by uplifting ourselves that we<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">[Pg 284]</a></span> approach them. It is +we who must take the first steps, for they can no longer descend, +whereas it is always possible for us to rise; for the dead, whatever +they have been in life, become better than the best of us. The least +worthy of them, in shedding the body, have shed its vices, its +littlenesses, its weaknesses, which soon pass from our memory as well; +and the spirit alone remains, which is pure in every man and able to +desire only what is good. There are no wicked dead because there are +no wicked souls. This is why, as we purify ourselves, we restore life +to those who were no more and transform our memory, which they +inhabit, into heaven.</p> + + +<h4>2</h4> + +<p>And what was always true of all the dead is far more true to-day when +only the best are chosen for the tomb. In the region which we believe +to be under the earth,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">[Pg 285]</a></span> which we call the kingdom of the shades and +which in reality is the ethereal region and the kingdom of light, +there are at this moment perturbations no less profound than those +which we are experiencing on the surface of our earth. The young dead +are invading it from every side; and since the beginning of this world +they have never been so numerous, so full of energy and zeal. Whereas +in the customary sequence of the years the dwelling-place of those who +leave us receives only weary and exhausted lives, there is not one in +this incomparable host who, to borrow Pericles' expression, "has not +departed from life at the height of glory." Not one of them but has +gone up, not down, to his death clad in the greatest sacrifice that +man can make for an idea which cannot die. All that we have hitherto +believed, all that we have striven to attain beyond ourselves, all +that has lifted us to the level at which we<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">[Pg 286]</a></span> stand, all that has +overcome the evil days and the evil instincts of human nature: all +this could have been no more than lies and illusions if such men as +these, such a mass of merit and of glory, were really annihilated, had +really forever disappeared, were forever useless and voiceless, +forever without influence in a world to which they have given life.</p> + + +<h4>3</h4> + +<p>It is hardly possible that this could be so as regards the external +survival of the dead; but it is absolutely certain that it is not so +as regards their survival in ourselves. Here nothing is lost and no +one perishes. Our memories are to-day peopled by a multitude of heroes +struck down in the flower of their youth and very different from the +pale and languid cohort of the past, composed almost wholly of the +sick and the aged, who already had ceased to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">[Pg 287]</a></span> exist before leaving the +earth. We must tell ourselves that now, in each of our homes, both in +our cities and in the country-side, both in the palace and in the +meanest hovel, there lives and reigns a young dead man in the glory of +his strength. He fills the poorest, darkest dwelling with a splendour +of which it had never ventured to dream. His constant presence, +imperious and inevitable, diffuses through it and maintains a religion +and ideas which it had never known there before, hallows everything +around it, forces the eyes to look higher and the spirit to refrain +from descending, purifies the air that is breathed and the speech that +is held and the thoughts that are mustered there and, little by +little, ennobles and uplifts a whole people on a scale of unexampled +vastness.</p> + + +<h4>4</h4> + +<p>Such dead as these have a power as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">[Pg 288]</a></span> profound, as fruitful as life and +less precarious. It is terrible that this experience should have been +made, for it is the most pitiless and the first in such enormous +masses that mankind has ever undergone; but, now that the ordeal is +almost over, we shall soon derive from it the most unexpected fruits. +It will not be long before we see the differences increase and the +destinies diverge between the nations which have acquired all these +dead and all this glory and those which were deprived of them; and we +shall perceive with amazement that those nations which have lost the +most are those which have kept their riches and their men. There are +losses which are inestimable gains; and there are gains whereby the +future is lost. There are dead whom the living cannot replace and the +mere thought of whom accomplishes things which their bodies could not +perform. There are dead whose energy surpasses<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">[Pg 289]</a></span> death and recovers +life; and we are almost every one of us at this moment the mandataries +of a being greater, nobler, graver, wiser and more truly living than +ourselves. With all those who accompany him, he will be our judge, if +it is the fact that the dead weigh the soul of the living and that on +their verdict our happiness depends. He will be our guide and our +protector, for it is the first time, since history has revealed its +misfortunes to us, that man has felt so great a host of such mighty +dead soaring above his head and speaking within his heart.</p> + + +<h4>5</h4> + +<p>We shall live henceforward under their laws, which will be more just +but not more severe nor more cheerless than ours; for it is a mistake +to suppose that the dead love nothing but gloom; they love only the +justice and the truth which are the eternal<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">[Pg 290]</a></span> forms of happiness. From +the depths of this justice and this truth in which they are all +immersed, they will help us to destroy the great falsehoods of +existence: for war and death, if they sow innumerable miseries and +misfortunes, have at least the merit of destroying as many lies as +they occasion evils. And all the sacrifices which they have made for +us will have been in vain—and this is not possible—if they do not +first of all bring about the fall of the lies on which we live and +which it is not necessary to name, for each of us knows his own and is +ashamed of them and will be eager to make an end of them. They will +teach us, before all else, from the depths of our hearts which are +their living tombs, to love those who outlive them, since it is in +them alone that they wholly exist.</p> + + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">[Pg 291]</a></span></p><hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="WHEN_THE_WAR_IS_OVER" id="WHEN_THE_WAR_IS_OVER"></a>WHEN THE WAR IS OVER</h2> + + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">[Pg 293]</a></span></p><hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="XXIII" id="XXIII"></a>XXIII</h2> + +<h3>WHEN THE WAR IS OVER</h3> + + +<h4>1</h4> + +<p>Before closing this book, I wish to weigh for the last time in my +conscience the words of hatred and malediction which it has made me +speak in spite of myself. We have to do with the strangest of enemies. +He has knowingly and deliberately, while in the full possession of his +faculties and without necessity or excuse, revived all the crimes +which we supposed to be forever buried in the barbarous past. He has +trampled under foot all the precepts which man had so painfully won +from the cruel darkness of his beginnings; he has violated all the +laws of justice, humanity, loyalty and honour, from the highest, which +are almost godlike, to the simplest, the most elementary, which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294">[Pg 294]</a></span> still +belong to the lower worlds. There is no longer any doubt on this +point: it has been proved over and over again until we have attained a +final certitude.</p> + +<p>But on the other hand, it is no less certain that he has displayed +virtues which it would be unworthy of us to deny; for we honour +ourselves in recognizing the valour of those whom we are fighting. He +has gone to his death in deep, compact, disciplined masses, with a +blind, hopeless, obstinate heroism of which no such lurid example had +ever yet been known, a heroism which has many times compelled our +admiration and our pity. He has known how to sacrifice himself, with +unprecedented and perhaps unequalled abnegation, to an idea which we +know to be false, inhuman and even somewhat mean, but which he +believes to be just and lofty; and a sacrifice of this kind, whatever +its object, is always the proof of a force which survives<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">[Pg 295]</a></span> those who +devote themselves to making it and must command respect.</p> + +<p>I know very well that this heroism is not like the heroism which we +love. For us, heroism must before all be voluntary, freed from any +constraint, active, ardent, eager and spontaneous; whereas with them +it has mingled with it a great deal of servility, passiveness, +sadness, gloomy, ignorant, massive submission and rather base fears. +It is nevertheless the fact that, in the moment of supreme peril, +little remains of all these distinctions and that no force in the +world can drive to its death a people which does not bear within +itself the strength to confront it. Our soldiers make no mistake upon +this point. Question the men returning from the trenches: they detest +the enemy, they abhor the aggressor, the unjust and arrogant +aggressor, uncouth, too often cruel and treacherous; but they do not +hate the man: they do him justice;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296">[Pg 296]</a></span> they pity him; and, after the +battle, in the defenceless wounded soldier or disarmed prisoner they +recognize, with astonishment, a brother in misfortune who, like +themselves, is submitting to duties and laws which, like themselves, +he too believes lofty and necessary. Under the insufferable enemy they +see an unhappy man who also is bearing the burden of life. They forget +the things that divide them to recall only those which unite them in a +common destiny; and they teach us a great lesson. Better than +ourselves, who are removed from danger, at the contact of profound and +fearful verities and realities they are already beginning to discern +something that we cannot yet perceive; and their obscure instinct is +probably anticipating the judgment of history and our own judgment, +when we see more clearly. Let us learn from them to be just and to +distinguish that which we are bound to despise and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297">[Pg 297]</a></span> loathe from that +which we may pity, love and respect.</p> + +<p>Setting aside the unpardonable aggression and the inexpiable violation +of treaties, this war, despite its insanity, has come near to being a +bloody but magnificent proof of greatness, heroism and the spirit of +sacrifice. Humanity was ready to rise above itself, to surpass all +that it had hitherto accomplished. It has surpassed it. Never before +had nations been seen capable, for months on end, perhaps for years, +of renouncing their repose, their security, their wealth, their +comfort, all that they possessed and loved down to their very life, in +order to accomplish what they believed to be their duty. Never before +had nations been seen that were able as a whole to understand and +admit that the happiness of each of those who live in this time of +trial is of no consequence compared with the honour of those who live +no more or the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298">[Pg 298]</a></span> happiness of those who are not yet alive. We stand on +heights that had not been attained before. And if, on the enemies' +side, this unexampled renunciation had not been poisoned at its +source; if the war which they are waging against us had been as fine, +as loyal, as generous, as chivalrous as that which we are waging +against them, we may well believe that it would have been the last and +that it would have ended, not in battle, but, like the awakening from +an evil dream, in a noble and fraternal amazement. They have made that +impossible; and this, we may be sure, is the disappointment which the +future will find it most difficult to forgive them.</p> + + +<h4>2</h4> + +<p>What are we to do now? Must we hate the enemy to the end of time? The +burden of hatred is the heaviest that man can bear upon this earth; +and we should faint under<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299">[Pg 299]</a></span> the weight of it. On the other hand, we do +not wish once more to be the dupes and victims of confidence and love. +Here again our soldiers, in their simplicity, which is so clear-seeing +and so close to the truth, anticipate the future and teach us what to +admit and what to avoid. We have seen that they do not hate the man; +but they do not trust him at all. They discover the human being in him +only when he is unarmed. They know, from bitter experience, that, so +long as he possesses weapons, he cannot resist the frenzy of +destruction, treachery and slaughter; and that he does not become +kindly until he is rendered powerless.</p> + +<p>Is he thus by nature, or has he been perverted by those who lead him? +Have the rulers dragged the whole nation after them, or has the whole +nation driven its rulers on? Did the rulers make the nation like unto +themselves, or did the nation<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300">[Pg 300]</a></span> select and support them because they +resembled itself? Did the evil come from above or below, or was it +everywhere? Here we have the great and obscure point of this terrible +adventure. It is not easy to throw light upon it and still less easy +to find excuses for it. If our enemies prove that they were deceived +and corrupted by their masters, they prove, at the same time, that +they are less intelligent, less firmly attached to justice, honour and +humanity, less civilized, in a word, than those whom they claimed the +right to enslave in the name of a superiority which they themselves +have proved not to exist; and, unless they can establish that their +errors, perfidies and cruelties, which can no longer be denied, should +be imputed only to those masters, then they themselves must bear the +pitiless weight. I do not know how they will escape from this +predicament, nor what the future will decide, that future<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301">[Pg 301]</a></span> which is +wiser than the past, even as, in the words of an old Slav proverb, the +dawn is wiser than the eve. In the meanwhile, let us copy the prudence +of our soldiers, who know what to believe far better than we do.</p> + + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303">[Pg 303]</a></span></p><hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="THE_MASSACRE_OF_THE_INNOCENTS" id="THE_MASSACRE_OF_THE_INNOCENTS"></a>THE MASSACRE OF THE INNOCENTS</h2> + + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_305" id="Page_305">[Pg 305]</a></span></p><hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="XXIV" id="XXIV"></a>XXIV</h2> + +<h3>THE MASSACRE OF THE INNOCENTS</h3> + + +<div class="blockquot"><p><i>The Massacre of the Innocents</i> appeared for the first time +in 1886, in a little periodical called <i>La Pléïade</i> which +some friends and I had founded in the Latin Quarter and +which died of inanition after its sixth number. My reason +for making room in the present volume for these pages +marking a very modest start—they were the first that found +their way into print—is not that I am under any delusion as +to the merits of this youthful work, in which I had simply +aimed at reproducing as best I could the different episodes +of a picture in the Brussels Museum, painted in the +sixteenth century by Pieter <a name="Brueghel" id="Brueghel"></a>Brueghel the Elder. But it +appeared to me that circumstances had made of this humble +literary effort a sort of prophetic vision; for it is but +too likely that similar scenes must have been repeated in +more than one of our unhappy Flemish or Brabant villages and +that to describe them as they were lately enacted we should +have only to change the name of the butchers and probably, +alas, to accentuate their cruelty, their injustice and their +hideousness!—M. M.</p></div> + + +<p>It was close upon supper-time, that Friday the twenty-sixth day of the +month of December, when a little shepherd-lad came into Nazareth, +sobbing bitterly.</p> + +<p>Some peasants drinking ale in the Blue<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_306" id="Page_306">[Pg 306]</a></span> Lion opened the shutters to +look into the village orchard and observed the child running over the +snow. They saw that he was Korneliz' boy and cried from the window:</p> + +<p>"What's the matter? Get home with you to bed!"</p> + +<p>But he replied in terror that the Spaniards were come, that they had +set fire to the farm, hanged his mother among the walnut-trees and +bound his nine little sisters to the trunk of a big tree.</p> + +<p>The peasants rushed out of the inn, gathered round the child and plied +him with questions. Then he also told them that the soldiers were on +horseback and wore mail, that they had driven away the cattle of his +uncle Petrus Krayer and that they would soon be entering the forest +with the cows and sheep.</p> + +<p>All ran to the Golden Sun, where Korneliz and his brother-in-law were +also drinking their pot of ale; and the inn-keeper<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_307" id="Page_307">[Pg 307]</a></span> sped into the +village, shouting that the Spaniards were at hand.</p> + +<p>Then there was a great din in Nazareth. The women opened the windows +and the peasants left their houses with lights which they put out as +soon as they reached the orchard, where it was bright as midday, +because of the snow and the full moon.</p> + +<p>They crowded round Korneliz and Krayer in the market-place, in front +of the two inns. Several had brought their pitchforks and their rakes +and consulted one another, terror-stricken, under the trees.</p> + +<p>But, as they knew not what to do, one of them went to fetch the +parish-priest, who owned Korneliz' farm. He came out of his house with +the sacristan, bringing the keys of the church. All followed him into +the churchyard; and he shouted to them from the top of the tower that +he could see nothing in the fields nor in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_308" id="Page_308">[Pg 308]</a></span> forest, but that there +were red clouds in the neighbourhood of his farm, though the sky was +blue and full of stars over all the rest of the country.</p> + +<p>After deliberating for a long time in the churchyard, they decided to +hide in the wood through which the Spaniards would have to pass and to +attack them if they were not too many, so as to recover Petrus +Krayer's cattle and the plunder which they had taken from the farm.</p> + +<p>They armed themselves with pitchforks and spades; and the women +remained near the church with the priest.</p> + +<p>Seeking a suitable spot for their ambuscade, they came to a mill on +the skirt of the forest and saw the farm burning amid the starlight. +Here, under some huge oaks, in front of a frozen pool, they took up +their position.</p> + +<p>A shepherd whom they called the Red Dwarf went up the hill to warn the +miller,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_309" id="Page_309">[Pg 309]</a></span> who had stopped his mill when he saw the flames on the +horizon. He invited the fellow in, however; and the two of them placed +themselves at a window to watch the distance.</p> + +<p>In front of them the moon was shining over the burning farm; and they +saw a long host marching over the snow. When they had taken stock of +it, the Dwarf went down to those in the forest; and presently they +descried four horsemen above a herd of animals that seemed to be +cropping the grass.</p> + +<p>As the men, in their blue hose and their red cloaks, were looking +around them on the edge of the pool and under the snow-lit trees, the +sacristan pointed to a box-hedge; and they went and hid behind it.</p> + +<p>The cattle and the Spaniards came over the ice; and the sheep on +reaching the hedge were already beginning to nibble at the leaves, +when Korneliz broke through<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_310" id="Page_310">[Pg 310]</a></span> the bushes; and the others followed with +their pitchforks into the light. Then there was a great slaughter on +the pond, while the huddled sheep and the cows gazed at the battle in +their midst and at the moon above them.</p> + +<p>When the men and the horses had been killed, Korneliz ran into the +meadows towards the flames; and the others stripped the dead. Then +they went back to the village with the herds. The women watching the +gloomy forest from behind the walls of the churchyard saw them +approaching through the trees and, with the priest, hurried to meet +them; and they returned dancing gleefully all amongst the children and +the dogs.</p> + +<p>While they made merry under the pear-trees in the orchard, where the +Red Dwarf hung up lanterns as a sign of kermis, they consulted the +priest as to what they were to do.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_311" id="Page_311">[Pg 311]</a></span></p> + +<p>They at last resolved to put a horse to a cart and fetch the bodies of +the woman and her nine little daughters to the village. The dead +woman's sisters and the other peasant-women of her family climbed into +it, as did the priest, who was not well able to walk, being advanced +in years and very stout.</p> + +<p>They entered the forest once more and arrived in silence at the +dazzling white plain, where they saw the naked men and the horses +lying on their backs upon the gleaming ice among the trees. Then they +went on to the farm, which they could see burning in the distance.</p> + +<p>When they came to the orchard and to the house all red with flames, +they stopped at the gate to mark the great misfortune that had +befallen the farmer in his garden. His wife was hanging all naked from +the branches of a great walnut-tree; he himself was mounting a ladder +to climb the tree,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_312" id="Page_312">[Pg 312]</a></span> around which the nine little girls were waiting +for their mother on the grass. Already he was walking among the huge +boughs, when suddenly he saw the crowd, black against the snow, +watching him. Weeping, he made signs to them to help him; and they +went into the garden. Then the sacristan, the Red Dwarf, the landlord +of the Blue Lion and he of the Golden Sun, the parish-priest, with a +lantern, and many other peasants climbed into the snow-laden +walnut-tree to cut down the corpse, which the women of the village +received in their arms at the foot of the tree, even as at the descent +from the Cross of Our Lord Jesus Christ.</p> + +<p>The next day they buried her; and nothing else out of the common +happened at Nazareth that week. But, on the following Sunday, hungry +wolves ran through the village after high mass and it snowed until +noon; then the sun suddenly shone in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_313" id="Page_313">[Pg 313]</a></span> the sky; and the peasants went +in to dinner, as was their wont, and dressed for benediction.</p> + +<p>At that moment there was no one in the market-place, for it was +freezing cruelly. Only the dogs and hens remained under the trees, +where some sheep were nibbling at a three-cornered patch of grass, +while the priest's maid-servant swept away the snow from the +presbytery-garden.</p> + +<p>Then a troop of armed men crossed the stone bridge at the end of the +village and halted in the orchard. Some peasants came out of their +houses; but, on recognizing the Spaniards, they retreated in terror +and went to their windows to see what would happen.</p> + +<p>There were some thirty horsemen, clad in armour, around an old man +with a white beard. Behind them they carried red and yellow +foot-soldiers, who jumped down and ran over the snow to shake off +their stiffness,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_314" id="Page_314">[Pg 314]</a></span> while several of the men in armour also alighted and +eased themselves against the trees to which they had fastened their +horses.</p> + +<p>Then they turned to the Golden Sun and knocked at the door. It was +opened hesitatingly; and they warmed themselves at the fire and called +for ale.</p> + +<p>Next they came out of the inn, carrying pots and jugs and wheaten +loaves for their comrades, who sat ranked around the man with the +white beard, waiting in the midst of the lances.</p> + +<p>As the street was empty, the commander sent horsemen to the back of +the houses, to guard the village on its open side, and ordered the +foot-soldiers to bring to him all the children of two years old and +under, to be massacred, as is written in the Gospel according to St. +Matthew.</p> + +<p>The soldiers went first to the inn of the Green Cabbage and to the +barber's cottage,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_315" id="Page_315">[Pg 315]</a></span> which stood side by side, midway in the street.</p> + +<p>One of them opened a stable-door; and a litter of pigs escaped and +scattered over the village. The inn-keeper and the barber came out and +humbly asked the soldiers what they wanted; but the men knew no +Flemish and went in to look for the children.</p> + +<p>The inn-keeper had one, which sat crying in its little shirt on the +table where they had just had dinner. A man took the child in his arms +and carried it away under the apple-tree, while the father and mother +followed him with cries of lamentation.</p> + +<p>The soldiers also threw open the cooper's shed and the blacksmith's +and the cobbler's; and the calves, cows, asses, pigs, goats and sheep +strayed about the market-place. When the men broke the glass of the +carpenter's windows, several of the peasants, including the oldest and +richest<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_316" id="Page_316">[Pg 316]</a></span> farmers in the parish, assembled in the street and went +towards the Spaniards. They doffed their hats and caps respectfully to +the leader in his velvet cloak and asked him what he was going to do; +but even he did not understand their language; and some one went to +fetch the priest.</p> + +<p>He was making ready for benediction and putting on a gold cope in the +sacristy. The peasant called out:</p> + +<p>"The Spaniards are in the orchard!"</p> + +<p>Horrified, the priest ran to the church-door, accompanied by the +serving-boys carrying tapers and censer.</p> + +<p>Then he saw the animals released from their sheds roaming on the snow +and the grass, the horsemen in the village, the soldiers outside the +doors, the horses tied to the trees along the street and the men and +women entreating him who was holding the child in its shirt.</p> + +<p>He rushed to the churchyard; and the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_317" id="Page_317">[Pg 317]</a></span> peasants turned anxiously to +their priest, coming through the pear-trees like a god robed in gold, +and stood around him and the man with the white beard.</p> + +<p>He spoke in Flemish and Latin; but the commander shrugged his +shoulders slowly up and down to show that he did not understand.</p> + +<p>His parishioners asked him under their breath:</p> + +<p>"What does he say? What is he going to do?"</p> + +<p>Others, on seeing the priest in the orchard, came timidly from their +farms; the women hurried up and stood whispering among the groups; +while some soldiers who were besieging an inn ran back at the sight of +the great crowd that was forming in the market-place.</p> + +<p>Then the man who was holding by one leg the child of the landlord of +the Green Cabbage cut off its head with his sword.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_318" id="Page_318">[Pg 318]</a></span></p> + +<p>The head fell before their eyes and the body fell after it and lay +bleeding on the grass. The mother picked it up and carried it away, +leaving the head behind her. She ran towards the house, but stumbled +against a tree and fell flat on the snow, where she lay in a swoon, +while the father struggled between two soldiers.</p> + +<p>Some of the younger peasants threw stones and blocks of wood at the +Spaniards, but the horsemen all lowered their lances together, the +women fled and the priest began to cry out in horror with his +parishioners, all among the sheep, the geese and the dogs.</p> + +<p>However, as the soldiers were once more moving down the street, the +folk stood silent to see what they would do.</p> + +<p>The band entered the shop kept by the sacristan's sisters and then +came out quietly, without harming the seven women, who knelt on the +doorstep praying.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_319" id="Page_319">[Pg 319]</a></span></p> + +<p>Next they went to the inn owned by the Hunchback of St. Nicholas. Here +also the door was opened directly, to appease them; but they +reappeared amid a great outcry, with three children in their arms and +surrounded by the Hunchback, his wife and his daughters, clasping +their hands in token of entreaty.</p> + +<p>On reaching the old man, the soldiers put down the children at the +foot of an elm, where they remained, sitting on the snow in their +Sunday clothes. But one of them, who wore a yellow frock, rose and +toddled towards the sheep. A man ran after it with his naked sword; +and the child died with its face in the grass, while the others were +killed not far from the tree.</p> + +<p>All the peasants and the inn-keeper's daughters took to flight, +shrieking as they went, and returned to their homes. The priest, left +alone in the orchard, besought the Spaniards with loud cries, going on +his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_320" id="Page_320">[Pg 320]</a></span> knees from horse to horse, with his arms crossed upon his breast, +while the father and mother, sitting in the snow, wept piteously for +the dead children that lay in their laps.</p> + +<p>As the soldiers ran along the street, they remarked a big blue +farm-house. They tried to break down the door, but it was of oak and +studded with nails. Then they took some tubs that were frozen in a +pool in front of the house and used them to climb to the upper +windows, through which they made their way.</p> + +<p>There had been a kermis at this farm; and kinsfolk had come to eat +waffles, ham and custards with their family. At the sound of the +broken panes, they had assembled behind the table covered with jugs +and dishes. The soldiers entered the kitchen and, after a desperate +struggle, in which many were wounded, they seized the little boys and +girls, as well as the hind,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_321" id="Page_321">[Pg 321]</a></span> who had bitten a soldier's thumb. Then +they left the house, locking the door behind them to prevent the +inmates from going with them.</p> + +<p>Those of the villagers who had no children slowly left their homes and +followed them from afar. When the soldiers carrying their victims came +to the old man, they threw them on the grass and deliberately killed +them with their spears and their swords, while all along the front of +the blue house the men and women leant out of the windows of the upper +floor and the loft, cursing and rocking wildly in the sunshine at the +sight of the red, pink and white frocks of their little ones lying +motionless on the grass among the trees. Then the soldiers hanged the +hind from the sign of the Half Moon on the other side of the street; +and there was a long silence in the village.</p> + +<p>The massacre now began to spread.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_322" id="Page_322">[Pg 322]</a></span> Mothers ran out of the houses and +tried to escape to the open country through the gardens and +kitchen-plots; but the horsemen scoured after them and drove them back +into the street. Peasants, holding their caps in their clasped hands, +followed upon their knees the men who were dragging away their +children, among the dogs which barked deliriously amid the din. The +priest, with his arms raised aloft, ran along the houses and under the +trees, praying desperately, like a martyr; and soldiers, shivering +with cold, blew on their fingers as they moved about the road, or, +with their hands in the pockets of their trunks and their swords +tucked under their arms, waited beneath the windows of the houses that +were being scaled.</p> + +<p>On seeing the grief-stricken terror of the peasants, they entered the +farm-houses in little bands; and in like fashion they acted throughout +the length of the street.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_323" id="Page_323">[Pg 323]</a></span></p> + +<p>A woman who sold vegetables in the old red-brick cottage near the +church seized a chair and ran after two men who were carrying off her +children in a wheel-barrow. When she saw them die, a sickness overcame +her; and she suffered the folk to press her into the chair, against a +tree by the road-side.</p> + +<p>Other soldiers climbed up the lime-trees in front of a house painted +lilac and removed the tiles in order to enter the house. When they +came out again upon the roof, the father and mother, with outstretched +arms, also appeared in the opening; and they pushed them down +repeatedly, cutting them over the head with their swords, before they +could descend into the street.</p> + +<p>One family, which had locked itself into the cellar of a rambling +cottage, cried through the grating, where the father stood madly +brandishing a pitchfork. An old, bald-headed man was sobbing all alone +on<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_324" id="Page_324">[Pg 324]</a></span> a dung-heap; a woman in yellow had fainted in the market-place and +her husband was holding her under her arms and moaning in the shadow +of a pear-tree; another, in red, was kissing her little girl, who had +lost her hands, and lifting first one arm and then the other to see if +she would not move. Yet another ran into the country and the soldiers +pursued her through the hayricks that bounded the snow-clad fields.</p> + +<p>Beneath the inn of the Four Sons of Aymon there was a tumult as of a +siege. The inhabitants had barred the door; and the soldiers went +round and round the house without being able to make their way in. +They were trying to clamber up to the sign by the fruit-trees against +the front wall, when they caught sight of a ladder behind the +garden-door. They set it against the wall and mounted one after the +other. Thereupon the landlord and all his household<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_325" id="Page_325">[Pg 325]</a></span> hurled tables, +chairs, dishes and cradles at them from the windows. The ladder upset +and the soldiers fell down.</p> + +<p>In a wooden hut, at the end of the village, another band found a +peasant-woman bathing her children in a tub by the fire. Being old and +almost deaf, she did not hear them come in. Two soldiers took the tub +and carried it off; and the dazed woman went after them, with the +children's clothes, wanting to dress them. But, when she came to the +door and suddenly saw the splashes of blood in the village, the swords +in the orchard, the cradles over-turned in the street, women on their +knees and women waving their arms around the dead, she began to cry +out with all her strength and to strike the soldiers, who put down the +tub to defend themselves. The priest also came hastening up and, +folding his hands across his vestment, entreated the Spaniards before +the naked children,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_326" id="Page_326">[Pg 326]</a></span> who were whimpering in the water. Other soldiers +then came up and pushed him aside and bound the raving peasant-woman +to a tree.</p> + +<p>The butcher had hidden his little daughter and, leaning against his +house, looked on in unconcern. A foot-soldier and one of the men in +armour went in and discovered the child in a copper cauldron. Then the +butcher, in desperation, took one of his knives and chased them down +the street; but a band that was passing struck the knife from his +grasp and hanged him by the hands to the hooks in his wall, among the +flayed carcases, where he twitched his legs and jerked his head and +cursed and swore till evening.</p> + +<p>Near the churchyard, a crowd had assembled outside a long green +farm-house. The farmer stood on his threshold weeping bitter tears; as +he was very fat, with a face made for smiling, the hearts of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_327" id="Page_327">[Pg 327]</a></span> +soldiers softened in some measure as they sat in the sun with their +backs to the wall, listening to him and patting his dog the while. But +the one who was dragging the child away by the hand made gestures as +though to say:</p> + +<p>"You may save your tears! It is not my fault!<a name="quotes" id="quotes"></a>"</p> + +<p>A peasant who was being hotly pursued sprang into a boat moored to the +stone bridge and pushed across the pond with his wife and children. +The soldiers, not daring to venture on the ice, strode angrily through +the reeds. They climbed into the willows on the bank, trying to reach +them with their spears; and, when they failed, continued for a long +time to threaten the family, where they all sat cowering in the middle +of the water.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile, the orchard was still full of people, for it was there that +most of the children were slain, in front of the man with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_328" id="Page_328">[Pg 328]</a></span> the white +beard who directed the massacre. The little boys and girls who were +big enough to walk alone also collected there and, munching their +bread-and-butter, stood looking on curiously to see the others die or +gathered round the village idiot, who lay upon the grass playing a +whistle.</p> + +<p>Then suddenly a movement ran through the length of the village. The +peasants were turning their steps toward the castle, standing on a +high mound of yellow earth at the end of the street. They had caught +sight of the lord of the village leaning on the battlements of his +tower, watching the massacre. And the men, women and old folk +stretched out their arms to him where he sat in his cloak of purple +velvet and cap of gold and entreated him as though he were a king in +heaven. But he threw up his arms and shrugged his shoulders, to show +his helplessness; and, when they implored him in ever-increasing +anguish and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_329" id="Page_329">[Pg 329]</a></span> knelt bareheaded in the snow, uttering loud cries, he +turned back slowly into the tower; and in the hearts of the peasants +all hope died.</p> + +<p>When all the children were killed, the tired soldiers wiped their +swords on the grass and supped under the pear-trees. Then the +foot-soldiers mounted behind the others and they all rode out of +Nazareth together, by the stone bridge, as they had come.</p> + +<p>The setting sun lit the forest with a red light and painted the +village a new colour. Weary with running and entreating, the priest +had sat down in the snow in front of the church; and his servant-maid +stood near him, looking around. They saw the street and the orchard +filled with peasants in their holiday attire, moving about the +market-place and along the houses. Outside the doors, families, with +their dead children on their knees, whispered in amazement<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_330" id="Page_330">[Pg 330]</a></span> and horror +of the fate wherewith they had been assailed. Others were still +mourning the child where it had fallen, near a cask, under a barrow or +at a puddle's edge, or were carrying it away in silence. Several were +already washing the benches, chairs, tables and shirts all smirched +with blood and picking up the cradles that had been flung into the +street. But nearly all the mothers were kneeling on the grass under +the trees, before the dead bodies, which they knew by their woollen +frocks. Those who had no children were roaming about the market-place, +stopping to gaze at the afflicted groups. The men who had done weeping +took the dogs and started in pursuit of their strayed beasts, or +mended their broken windows or gaping roofs, while the village grew +hushed and still beneath the light of the moon as it rose slowly in +the sky.</p> + + +<h4>THE END</h4> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<h4>Transcriber's Notes</h4> + +<p>The following typographical errors have been corrected from the original book:</p> + +<p> +Page 083: inquity changed to <a href="#iniquity">iniquity</a><br /> +Page 113: magnificnt " " <a href="#magnificent">magnificent</a><br /> +Page 126: alwas " " <a href="#always">always</a><br /> +Page 174: man " " <a href="#men">men</a><br /> +Page 178: centuies " " <a href="#centuries">centuries</a><br /> +Page 183: catacylsm " " <a href="#cataclysm">cataclysm</a><br /> +Page 232: sorsow " " <a href="#sorrow">sorrow</a><br /> +Page 236: Then " " <a href="#They">They</a><br /> +Page 247: (section number) 2 " " <a href="#three">3</a><br /> +Page 305: Breughel " " <a href="#Brueghel">Brueghel</a><br /> +Page 327: missing ending <a href="#quotes">quotes</a> were added +</p> + +<p>Other spelling variations, for example, <a href="#Renascence">Renascence</a> (pg. 64) and <a href="#behoves">behoves</a> +(pg. 119), have been retained.</p> + + + + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Wrack of the Storm, by Maurice Maeterlinck + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WRACK OF THE STORM *** + +***** This file should be named 17861-h.htm or 17861-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/7/8/6/17861/ + +Produced by Diane Monico and the Project Gutenberg Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Wrack of the Storm + +Author: Maurice Maeterlinck + +Translator: Alexander Teixeira de Mattos + +Release Date: February 26, 2006 [EBook #17861] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WRACK OF THE STORM *** + + + + +Produced by Diane Monico and the Project Gutenberg Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + + + +THE WRACK OF THE STORM + + + + ++----------------------------------------------+ +| | +| THE WORKS OF MAURICE MAETERLINCK | +| | +| ESSAYS | +| | +| The Treasure of the Humble | +| Wisdom and Destiny | +| The Life of the Bee | +| The Buried Temple | +| The Double Garden | +| The Measure of the Hours | +| On Emerson, and Other Essays | +| Our Eternity | +| The Unknown Guest | +| The Wrack of the Storm | +| | +| PLAYS | +| | +| Sister Beatrice, and Ardiane and Barbe Bleue | +| Joyzelle, and Monna Vanna | +| The Blue Bird, A Fairy Play | +| Mary Magdalene | +| Pelleas and Melisande, and Other Plays | +| Princess Maleine | +| The Intruder, and Other Plays | +| Aglavaine and Selysette | +| | +| HOLIDAY EDITIONS | +| | +| Our Friend the Dog | +| The Swarm | +| The Intelligence of the Flowers | +| Death | +| Thoughts from Maeterlinck | +| The Blue Bird | +| The Life of the Bee | +| News of Spring and Other Nature Studies | +| Poems | ++----------------------------------------------+ + + + + +The +Wrack of the Storm + +BY + +MAURICE MAETERLINCK + + +_Translated by_ + +ALEXANDER TEIXEIRA DE MATTOS + + +NEW YORK +DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY +1916 + + + + +COPYRIGHT, 1916 +BY DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY, INC. + + + + +AUTHOR'S PREFACE + + +The reader taking up this volume will, for the first time in the work +of one who hitherto had cursed no man, find words of hatred and +malediction. I would gladly have avoided them, for I hold that he who +takes upon himself to write pledges himself to say nothing that can +derogate from the respect and love which we owe to all men. I have had +to utter these words; and I am as much surprised as saddened at what I +have been constrained to say by the force of events and of truth. I +loved Germany and numbered friends there, who now, dead or living, are +alike dead to me. I thought her great and upright and generous; and to +me she was ever kindly and hospitable. But there are crimes that +obliterate the past and close the future. In rejecting hatred I +should have shown myself a traitor to love. + +I tried to lift myself above the fray; but, the higher I rose, the +more I saw of the madness and the horror of it, of the justice of one +cause and the infamy of the other. It is possible that one day, when +time has wearied remembrance and restored the ruins, wise men will +tell us that we were mistaken and that our standpoint was not lofty +enough; but they will say it because they will no longer know what we +know, nor will they have seen what we have seen. + + MAURICE MAETERLINCK. + + NICE, 1916. + + + + +TRANSLATOR'S NOTE + + +The present volume contains, in the chronological order in which they +were produced, all the essays published and all the speeches delivered +by M. Maeterlinck since the beginning of the war, upon which, as will +be perceived, each one of them has a direct bearing. They are printed +as written; and they throw an interesting light upon the successive +phases of the author's psychology during the Titanic and hideous +struggle that has affected the mental attitude of us all. + +_In Italy_ forms the preface to M. Jules Destree's book, _En Italie +avant la guerre, 1914-15_. Of the remaining essays, some have appeared +in various English and American periodicals; others are now printed in +translation for the first time. + +I have also had M. Maeterlinck's leave to include in this volume his +first published work, _The Massacre of the Innocents_. This powerful +sketch in the Flemish manner saw the light originally in the +_Pleiade_, in 1886, and may at the present time, to use the author's +own words in a note to myself, be regarded as "a sort of vague +symbolic prophecy." An English version by Mrs. Edith Wingate Rinder +was printed in the _Dome_ in 1899; another has since been issued by an +English and by an American firm of publishers; but the only authorized +translation to appear in book form is that now added as an epilogue to +_The Wrack of the Storm_. + + ALEXANDER TEIXEIRA DE MATTOS. + + CHELSEA, 1916. + + + + +CONTENTS + + + PAGE + +AUTHOR'S PREFACE 5 + +TRANSLATOR'S NOTE 7 + + I AFTER THE VICTORY 11 + + II KING ALBERT 21 + + III THE HOSTAGE CITIES 31 + + IV TO SAVE FOUR CITIES 37 + + V PRO PATRIA: I 45 + + VI HEROISM 59 + + VII PRO PATRIA: II 75 + + VIII PRO PATRIA: III 89 + + IX BELGIUM'S FLAG DAY 109 + + X ON THE DEATH OF A LITTLE SOLDIER 117 + + XI THE HOUR OF DESTINY 131 + + XII IN ITALY 147 + + XIII ON REREADING THUCYDIDES 161 + + XIV THE DEAD DO NOT DIE 179 + + XV IN MEMORIAM 191 + + XVI SUPERNATURAL COMMUNICATIONS IN WAR-TIME 197 + + XVII EDITH CAVELL 217 + +XVIII THE LIFE OF THE DEAD 229 + + XIX THE WAR AND THE PROPHETS 241 + + XX THE WILL OF EARTH 257 + + XXI FOR POLAND 271 + + XXII THE MIGHT OF THE DEAD 279 + +XXIII WHEN THE WAR IS OVER 291 + + XXIV THE MASSACRE OF THE INNOCENTS 303 + + * * * * * + + + + +AFTER THE VICTORY + + + + +THE WRACK OF THE STORM + +I + +AFTER THE VICTORY[1] + + +1 + +At these moments of tragedy, none should be allowed to speak who +cannot shoulder a rifle, for the written word seems so monstrously +useless, so overwhelmingly trivial, in front of this mighty drama +which shall for a long time, it may be for ever, free mankind from the +scourge of war: the one scourge among all that cannot be excused, that +cannot be explained, since alone among all it issues entire from the +hands of man. + + +2 + +But it is while this scourge is upon us, while we have our being in +its very centre, that we shall do well to balance the guilt of those +who have committed this inexpiable crime. It is now, while we are in +the thick of the horror, undergoing it, feeling it, that we have the +energy, the clear-sightedness needed to judge it; from the depths of +the most fearful injustice justice is best perceived. When the hour +shall have come for settling accounts--and it will not long delay--we +shall have forgotten much of what we have suffered and a blameworthy +pity will creep over us and cloud our eyes. This is the moment, +therefore, for us to frame our inexorable resolution. After the final +victory, when the enemy is crushed--as crushed he will be--efforts +will be made to enlist our sympathy, to move us to pity. We shall be +told that the unfortunate German people were merely the victims of +their monarch and their feudal caste; that no blame attaches to the +Germany we know, which is so sympathetic and so cordial--the Germany +of quaint old houses and open-hearted greeting, the Germany that sits +under its lime-trees beneath the clear light of the moon--but only to +Prussia, hateful, arrogant Prussia; that the homely, peace-loving, +Bavarian, the genial and hospitable dwellers on the banks of the +Rhine, the Silesian and Saxon and I know not who besides--for all +these will suddenly have become whiter than snow and more inoffensive +than the sheep in an English fold--that they all have merely obeyed, +have been compelled to obey orders which they detested but were unable +to resist. We are face to face with reality now; let us look at it +well and pronounce our sentence; for this is the moment when we hold +the proofs in our hands, when the elements of crime are hot before us +and shout out the truth that soon will fade from our memory. Let us +tell ourselves now, therefore, now, that all that we shall be told +hereafter will be false; and let us unflinchingly adhere to what we +decide at this moment, when the glare of the horror is on us. + + +3 + +It is not true that in this gigantic crime there are innocent and +guilty, or degrees of guilt. They stand on one level, all those who +have taken part in it. The German from the North has no more special +craving for blood and outrage than he from the South has special +tenderness or pity. It is, very simply, the German, from one end of +his country to the other, who stands revealed as a beast of prey which +the firm will of our planet finally repudiates. We have here no +wretched slaves dragged along by a tyrant king who alone is +responsible. Nations have the government which they deserve, or +rather, the government which they have is truly no more than the +magnified and public projection of the private morality and mentality +of the nation. If eighty million innocent people select and support a +monstrous king, those eighty million innocent people merely expose the +inherent falseness and superficiality of their innocence; and it is +the monster they maintain at their head who stands for all that is +true in their nature, because it is he who represents the eternal +aspirations of their race, which lie far deeper than their apparent +and transient virtues. Let there be no suggestion of error, of having +been led astray, of an intelligent people having been tricked or +misled. No nation can be deceived that does not wish to be deceived; +and it is not intelligence that Germany lacks. In the sphere of +intellect such things are not possible; nor in the region of +enlightened, reflecting will. No nation permits herself to be coerced +to the one crime that man cannot pardon. It is of her own accord that +she hastens towards it; her chief has no need to persuade, it is she +who urges him on. + + +4 + +We have forces here quite different from those on the surface, forces +that are secret, irresistible and profound. It is these that we must +judge, these that we must crush under our heel, once and for all; for +they are the only ones that will not be improved or softened or +brought into line by experience or progress, or even by the bitterest +lesson. They are unalterable and immovable, their springs lie far +beneath hope or influence; and they must be destroyed as we destroy a +nest of wasps, since we know that these never can change into a nest +of bees. And, even though individually and singly the Germans were all +innocent and merely led astray, they would be none the less guilty in +the mass. This is the guilt that counts, that alone is actual and +real, because it lays bare, underneath their superficial innocence, +the subconscious criminality of all. + + +5 + +No influence can prevail on the unconscious or the subconscious. It +never evolves. Let there come a thousand years of civilization, a +thousand years of peace, with all possible refinements of art and +education, the subconscious element of the German spirit, which is its +unvarying element, will remain absolutely the same as it is to-day and +would declare itself, when the opportunity came, under the same +aspect, with the same infamy. Through the whole course of history, two +distinct willpowers have been noticed that would seem to be the +opposed, elemental manifestations of the spirit of our globe, the one +seeking only evil, injustice, tyranny and suffering, while the other +strives for liberty, the right, radiance and joy. These two powers +stand once again face to face; our opportunity is now to annihilate +the one that comes from below. Let us know how to be pitiless that we +may have no more need for pity. It is a measure of organic defence. It +is essential that the modern world should stamp out Prussian +militarism as it would stamp out a poisonous fungus that for half a +century had disturbed and polluted its days. The health of our planet +is in question. To-morrow the United States of Europe will have to +take measures for the convalescence of the earth. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 1: Translated by Alfred Sutro.] + + * * * * * + + + + +KING ALBERT + + + + +II + +KING ALBERT + + +1 + +Of all the heroes of this stupendous war, heroes who will live in the +memory of man, one assuredly of the most unsullied, one of those whom +we can never love enough, is the great young king of my little +country. + +He was indeed at the critical hour the appointed man, the man for whom +every heart was waiting. With sudden beauty he embodied the mighty +voice of his people. He stood, upon the moment, for Belgium, revealed +unto herself and unto others. He had the wonderful good fortune to +realize and bestow a conscience in one of those dread hours of tragedy +and perplexity when the best of consciences waver. + +Had he not been at hand, there is no doubt but that all would have +happened differently; and history would have lost one of her fairest +and noblest pages. Certainly Belgium would have been loyal and true to +her word; and any government would have been swept away, pitilessly +and irresistibly, by the indignation of a people that had never, +however far we probe into the past, played false. But there would have +been much of that confusion and irresolution inevitable in a host +suddenly threatened with disaster. There would have been vain talking, +mistaken measures, excusable but irreparable vacillations; and, above +all, the much-needed words, the precise and final words, would not +have been spoken and the deeds, than which we can picture none more +resolute, none greater, would not have been done at the right moment. + +Thanks to the king, the peerless act shines forth and is maintained +complete, unfaltering; and the path of heroism is straight and +clearly defined and splendid as that of Thermopylae indefinitely +extended. + + +2 + +But what he has suffered, what he suffers day by day only those can +understand who have had the privilege of access to this hero: the most +sensitive and the gentlest of men, silent and reserved; a man of +controlled emotions, modest with a timidity that is at once baffling +and delightful; loving his people less as a father loves his children +than as a son loves his adoring mother. Of all that cherished kingdom, +his pride and his joy, the seat of his happiness, the centre of his +love and his security, there is left intact but a handful of cities, +which are threatened at every moment by the foulest invader that the +world has ever borne. + +All the others--so quaint or so beautiful, so bright, so serene, happy +to be there, so inoffensive--jewels in the crown of Peace, models of +pure and upright family life, homes of loyal and dutiful industry, of +ready, ever-smiling geniality, with the natural welcome, the +ever-proffered hand and the ever-open heart: all the others are dead +cities, of which not one stone is left upon another; and the very +country-side, one of the fairest in this world, with its gentle +pastures, is now no more than one vast field of horror. + +Treasures have perished that were numbered among the noblest and +dearest possessions of mankind; monuments have disappeared which +nothing can replace; and the half of a nation, among all nations the +most attached to its old simple habits, its humble homes, is at +present wandering along the roads of Europe. Thousands of innocent +people have been massacred; and of those who remain nearly all are +doomed to poverty and hunger. + +But that remainder has but one soul, which has taken refuge in the +spacious soul of its king. Not a murmur, not a word of reproach! But +yesterday a town of thirty thousand inhabitants received the order to +forsake its white houses, its churches, its ancient streets and +squares, the scene of a light-hearted and industrious life. The thirty +thousand inhabitants, women and children and old men, set forth to +seek an uncertain refuge in a neighbouring city, which is threatened +almost as directly as their own and which to-morrow, it may be, must +in its turn set forth, but whither none can say, for the country is so +small that its boundaries are quickly reached, its shelter soon +exhausted. + +No matter: they obey in silence and one and all approve and bless +their sovereign. He did what had to be done, what every one in his +place would have done; and, though they are all suffering as no +people has suffered since the barbarous invasions of the earliest +ages, they know that he suffers more than any of them, for in him all +their sorrows find a goal; in him they are reflected and enhanced. +They do not even harbour the idea that they might have been saved by a +sacrifice of honour. They draw no distinction between duty and +destiny. To them that duty, with its frightful consequences, seems as +inevitable as a natural force against which we cannot even dream of +struggling, so great is it and so invincible. + + +3 + +Here is an example of the collective bravery of nameless heroes, an +ingenuous and almost unconscious courage, which rivals and at times +exceeds the most exalted deeds in legend and history, for since the +days of the great martyrs men have never suffered death more simply +for a simple idea. + +And, if amid the anguish of our struggle it were seemly to speak of +aught but tears and lamentations, we should find a magnificent +consolation in the spectacle of the unexpected heroism that suddenly +surrounds us on every side. It may well be said that never in the +memory of mankind have men sacrificed their lives with such zest, such +self-abnegation, such enthusiasm; and that the immortal virtues which +to this day have uplifted and preserved the flower of the human race +have never shone more brilliantly, never manifested greater power, +energy or youth. + + * * * * * + + + + +THE HOSTAGE CITIES + + + + +III + +THE HOSTAGE CITIES + + +1 + +Thanks to the heroism of the Allies, the hour is approaching when the +hordes of William the Madman will quit the soil of afflicted Belgium. + +After what they have done in cold blood, what excesses, what disasters +must we not expect of the last convulsions of their rage? Our anguish +is all the more poignant in that they are at this moment fighting in +the most ancient and most precious portion of Flanders. Above all +countries, this is historic and hallowed land. They have destroyed +Termonde, Roulers, Charleroi, Mons, Namur, Thielt and more besides; +happy, charming little towns, which will rise again from their ashes, +more beautiful than before. They have annihilated Louvain and +Malines; they have but lately levelled Dixmude; their torches, their +incendiary squirts and their bombs are about to attack Brussels, +Antwerp, Ghent, Bruges, Ypres and Furnes, which are like so many +living museums, forming one of the most delightful, delicate and +fragile ornaments of Europe. The things which are beginning here and +which may be completed would be irreparable. They would mean a loss to +our race for which nothing could atone. A quite peculiar +aspect--familiar, kindly, racy of the soil and unique--of that beauty +which a long series of comely human lives is able to acquire and to +hoard would disappear for ever from the face of the earth; and we +cannot, in the trouble and confusion of these too tragic hours, +realize the extent, the meaning or the consequences of such a crime. + + +2 + +We have made every sacrifice without complaining; but this would +exceed all measure. What can be done? How are we to stop them? They +seem to be no longer accessible to reason or to any of the feelings +which men hold in honour; they are sensible only to blows. Very soon, +as they must know, we shall have the power to strike them shrewdly. +Why do not the Allies, this very day, swiftly, while yet there is +time, name so many hostage cities, which would be answerable, stone +for stone, for the existence of our own dear towns? If Brussels, for +example, should be destroyed, then Berlin should be razed to the +ground. If Antwerp were devastated, Hamburg would disappear. Nuremburg +would guarantee Bruges; Munich would stand surety for Ghent. + +At the present moment, when they are feeling the wind of defeat that +blows through their tattered standard, it is possible that this +solemn threat, officially pronounced, would force them to reflect, if +indeed they are still at all capable of reflection. It is the only +expedient that remains to us and there is no time to be lost. With +certain adversaries the most barbarous threats are legitimate and +necessary, for these threats speak the only language which they can +understand. And our children must not one day be able to reproach us +with not having attempted everything--even that which is most +repugnant--to save the treasures which are theirs by right. + + * * * * * + + + + +TO SAVE FOUR CITIES + + + + +IV + +TO SAVE FOUR CITIES + + +1 + +First Louvain, Malines, Termonde, Lierre, Dixmude, Nieuport (and I am +speaking only of the disasters of Flanders); now Ypres is no more and +Furnes is half in ruins. By the side of the great Flemish cities, +Brussels, Antwerp, Ghent and Bruges, those vast and incomparable +living museums which have been watchfully preserved by a whole people, +a people above all others attached to its traditions, they formed a +constellation of little towns, delightful and hospitable, too little +known to travellers. Each of them wore its own expression, of peace, +pleasantness, innocent mirth, or meditation. Each possessed its +treasures, jealously guarded: its belfries, its churches, its canals, +its old bridges, its quiet convents, its ancient houses, which gave +it a special physiognomy, never to be forgotten by those who had +beheld it. + +But the indisputable queen of these beautiful forsaken cities was +Ypres, with its enormous market-place, bordered by little +dwelling-houses with stepped gables, and its prodigious +market-buildings, which occupied one whole side of the immense oblong. +This market-place haunted for ever the memory of those who had seen +it, were it but once, while waiting to change trains; it was so +unexpected, so magical, so dream-like almost, in its disproportion to +the rest of the town. While the ancient city, whose life had withdrawn +itself from century to century, was gradually shrinking all around it, +the Grand'Place itself remained an immovable, gigantic, magnificent +witness to the might and opulence of old, when Ypres was, with Ghent +and Bruges, one of the three queens of the western world, one of the +most strenuous centres of human industry and activity and the cradle +of our great liberties. Such as it was yesterday--alas, that I cannot +say, such as it is to-day!--this square, with the enormous but +unspeakably harmonious mass of those market-buildings, at once +powerful and graceful, wild, gloomy, proud, yet genial, was one of the +most wonderful and perfect spectacles that could be seen in any town +on this old earth of ours. While of a different order of architecture, +built of other elements and standing under sterner skies, it should +have been as precious to man, as sacred and as intangible as the +Piazza di San Marco at Venice, the Signoria at Florence or the Piazza +del Duomo at Pisa. It constituted a peerless specimen of art, which at +all times wrung a cry of admiration from the most indifferent, an +ornament which men hoped was imperishable, one of those things of +beauty which, in the words of the poet, are a joy forever. + + +2 + +I cannot believe that it no longer exists; and yet in this horrible +war we have to believe everything and, above all, the worst. Now, +fatally and inevitably, it will be the turn of the Belfry of Bruges; +and then the tide of barbarians will rise against Ghent and Antwerp +and Brussels; and there will forthwith disappear one of those portions +of the world's surface in which was hoarded the greatest wealth of +beauty and of memories and of the stuff of history. We did what we +could to preserve it; we could do no more. The most heroic of armies +are powerless to prevent the bandits whom they are driving back from +murdering the women and children or from deliberately and uselessly +destroying all that they find along their path of retreat. There is +only one hope left us: the immediate and imperious intervention of +the neutral powers. It is towards them that we turn our tortured gaze. +Two great nations notably--Italy and the United States--hold in their +hands the fate of these last treasures, whose loss would one day be +reckoned among the heaviest and the most irreparable that have been +suffered in the course of long centuries of human civilization. They +can do what they will; it is time for them to do that which it is no +longer lawful to leave undone. By its frantic lies, the beast from +over the Rhine, standing at bay and in peril of death, shows plainly +enough the importance which it attaches to the opinion of the only +nations which the execration of all that lives and breathes have not +yet armed against it. It is afraid. It feels that all is crumbling +under foot, that it is being shunned and abandoned. It seeks in every +direction a glance that does not curse it. It must not, it shall not +find that glance. It is not necessary to tell Italy what our +imperilled cities are worth; for Italy is preeminently the land of +noble cities. + +Our cause is her cause; she owes us her support. When a work of beauty +is destroyed, her own genius and her own eternal gods are outraged. As +for America, she more than any other country stands for the future. +She should think of the days that will follow after this war. When the +great peace descends upon the earth, let not the earth be found desert +and robbed of all its jewels. The places at which the earth is +beautiful because of centuries of effort, because of the successful +zeal and patience and genius of a race, are not so many. This corner +of Flanders, over which death now hovers, is one of those consecrated +spots. Were it to perish, men as yet unborn, men who at last, perhaps, +will achieve happiness, would lack memories and examples which nothing +could replace. + + * * * * * + + + + +PRO PATRIA: I + + + + +V + +PRO PATRIA: I[2] + + +1 + +I need not here recall the events that hurled Belgium into the depths +of distress most glorious where she is struggling to-day. She has been +punished as never nation was punished for doing her duty as never +nation did before. She saved the world while knowing that she could +not be saved. She saved it by flinging herself in the path of the +oncoming barbarians, by allowing herself to be trampled to death in +order to give the defenders of justice time, not to rescue her, for +she was well aware that rescue could not come in time, but to collect +the forces needed to save our Latin civilization from the greatest +danger that has ever threatened it. She has thus done this +civilization, which is the only one whereunder the majority of men are +willing or able to live, a service exactly similar to that which +Greece, at the time of the great Asiatic invasions, rendered to the +mother of this civilization. But, while the service is similar, the +act surpasses all comparison. We may ransack history in vain for aught +to approach it in grandeur. The magnificent sacrifice at Thermopylae, +which is perhaps the noblest action in the annals of war, is illumined +with an equally heroic but less ideal light, for it was less +disinterested and more material. Leonidas and his three hundred +Spartans were in fact defending their homes, their wives, their +children, all the realities which they had left behind them. King +Albert and his Belgians, on the other hand, knew full well that, in +barring the invader's road, they were inevitably sacrificing their +homes, their wives and their children. Unlike the heroes of Sparta, +instead of possessing an imperative and vital interest in fighting, +they had everything to gain by not fighting and nothing to lose--save +honour. In the one scale were fire and the sword, ruin, massacre, the +infinite disaster which we see; in the other was that little word +honour, which also represents infinite things, but things which we do +not see, or which we must be very pure and very great to see quite +clearly. It has happened now and again in history that a man standing +higher than his fellows perceives what this word represents and +sacrifices his life and the life of those whom he loves to what he +perceives; and we have not without reason devoted to such men a sort +of cult that places them almost on a level with the gods. But what had +never yet happened--and I say this without fear of contradiction from +whosoever cares to search the memory of man--is that a whole people, +great and small, rich and poor, learned and ignorant, deliberately +immolated itself thus for the sake of an unseen thing. + + +2 + +And observe that we are not discussing one of those heroic resolutions +which are taken in a moment of enthusiasm, when man easily surpasses +himself, and which have not to be maintained when, forgetting his +intoxication, he lapses on the morrow to the dead level of his +everyday life. We are concerned with a resolution that has had to be +taken and maintained every morning, for now nearly four months, in the +midst of daily increasing distress and disaster. And not only has this +resolution not wavered by a hair's breadth, but it grows as steadily +as the national misfortune; and to-day, when this misfortune is +reaching its full, the national resolution is likewise attaining its +zenith. I have seen many of my refugee fellow-countrymen: some used to +be rich and had lost their all; others were poor before the war and +now no longer owned even what the poorest own. I have received many +letters from every part of Europe where duty's exiles had sought a +brief instant of repose. In them there was lamentation, as was only +too natural, but not a reproach, not a regret, not a word of +recrimination. I did not once come upon that hopeless but excusable +cry which, one would think, might so easily have sprung from +despairing lips: + +"If our king had not done what he did, we should not be suffering what +we are suffering to-day." + +The idea does not even occur to them. It is as though this thought +were not of those which can live in that atmosphere purified by +misfortune. They are not resigned, for to be resigned means to +renounce the strife, no longer to keep up one's courage. They are +proud and happy in their distress. They have a vague feeling that this +distress will regenerate them after the manner of a baptism of faith +and glory and ennoble them for all time in the remembrance of men. An +unexpected breath, coming from the secret reserves of the human race +and from the summits of the human heart, has suddenly passed over +their lives and given them a single soul, formed of the same heroic +substance as that of their great king. + + +3 + +They have done what had never before been done; and it is to be hoped +for the happiness of mankind that no nation will ever again be called +upon for a like sacrifice. But this wonderful example will not be +lost, even though there be no longer any occasion to imitate it. At a +time when the universal conscience seemed about to bend under the +weight of long prosperity and selfish materialism, suddenly it raised +by several degrees what we may term the political morality of the +world and lifted it all at once to a height which it had not yet +reached and from which it will never again be able to descend, for +there are actions so glorious, actions which fill so great a place in +our memory, that they found a sort of new religion and definitely fix +the limits of the human conscience and of human loyalty and courage. + +They have really, as I have already said and as history will one day +establish with greater eloquence and authority than mine, they have +really saved Latin civilization. They had stood for centuries at the +junction of two powerful and hostile forms of culture. They had to +choose and they did not hesitate. Their choice was all the more +significant, all the more instructive, inasmuch as none was so well +qualified as they to choose with a full knowledge of what they were +doing. You are all aware that more than half of Belgium is of Teutonic +stock. She was therefore, thanks to her racial affinities, better able +than any other to understand the culture that was being offered her, +together with the imputation of dishonour which it included. She +understood it so well that she rejected it with an outbreak of horror +and disgust unparalleled in violence, spontaneous, unanimous and +irresistible, thus pronouncing a verdict from which there was no +appeal and giving the world a peremptory lesson sealed with every drop +of her blood. + + +4 + +But to-day she is at the end of her resources. She has exhausted not +her courage but her strength. She has paid with all that she possesses +for the immense service which she has rendered to mankind. Thousands +and thousands of her children are dead; all her riches have perished; +almost all her historic memories, which were her pride and her +delight, almost all her artistic treasures, which were numbered among +the fairest in this world, are destroyed for ever. She is nothing more +than a desert whence stand out, more or less intact, four great towns +alone, four towns which the Rhenish hordes, for whom the epithet of +barbarians is in point of fact too honourable, appear to have spared +only so that they may keep back one last and monstrous revenge for the +day of the inevitable rout. It is certain that Antwerp, Ghent, Bruges +and Brussels are doomed beyond recall. In particular, the admirable +Grand'Place, the Hotel de Ville and the Cathedral at Brussels are, I +know, undermined: I repeat, I know it from private and trustworthy +testimony against which no denial can prevail. A spark will be enough +to turn one of the recognized marvels of Europe into a heap of ruins +like those of Ypres, Malines and Louvain. Soon after--for, short of +immediate intervention, the disaster is as certain as though it were +already accomplished--Bruges, Antwerp and Ghent will suffer the same +fate; and in a moment, as I was saying the other day, there will +vanish from sight one of the corners of this earth in which the +greatest store of memories, of historic matter and artistic beauties +had been accumulated. + + +5 + +The time has come to end this foolery! The time has come for +everything that draws breath to rise up against these systematic, +insane and stupid acts of destruction, perpetrated without any +military excuse or strategic object. The reason why we are at last +uttering a great cry of distress, we who are above all a silent +people, the reason why we turn to your mighty and noble country is +that Italy is to-day the only European power that is still in a +position to stop the unchained brute on the brink of his crime. You +are ready. You have but to stretch out a hand to save us. We have not +come to beg for our lives: these no longer count with us and we have +already offered them up. But, in the name of the last beautiful things +that the barbarians have left us, we come with our prayers to the land +of all beautiful things. It must not be, it shall not be that, on the +day when at last we return, not to our homes, for most of these are +destroyed, but to our native soil, that soil is so laid waste as to +have become an unrecognizable desert. You know better than any others +what memories mean, what masterpieces mean to a nation, for your +country is covered with memories and masterpieces. It is also the +land of justice and the cradle of the law, which is simply justice +that has taken cognizance of itself. On this account, Italy owes us +justice. And she owes it to herself to put a stop to the greatest +iniquity in the annals of history, for not to put a stop to it when +one has the power is almost tantamount to taking part in it. It is for +Italy as much as for France that we have suffered. She is the source, +she is the very mother of the ideal for which we have fought and for +which the last of our soldiers are still fighting in the last of our +trenches. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 2: Delivered at the Scala Theatre, Milan, 30 November, +1914.] + + * * * * * + + + + +HEROISM + + + + +VI + +HEROISM + + +1 + +One of the consoling surprises of this war is the unlooked-for and, so +to speak, universal heroism which it has revealed among all the +nations taking part in it. + +We were rather inclined to believe that courage, physical and moral +fortitude, self-denial, stoicism, the renunciation of every sort of +comfort, the faculty of self-sacrifice and the power of facing death +belonged only to the more primitive, the less happy, the less +intelligent nations, to the nations least capable of reasoning, of +appreciating danger and of picturing in their imagination the dreadful +abyss that separates this life from the life unknown. We were even +almost persuaded that war would one day cease for lack of soldiers, +that is to say, of men foolish enough or unhappy enough to risk the +only absolute realities--health, physical comfort, an unimpaired body +and, above all, life, the greatest of earthly possessions--for the +sake of an ideal which, like all ideals, is more or less invisible. + +And this argument seemed the more natural and convincing because, as +existence grew gentler and men's nerves more sensitive, the means of +destruction by war showed themselves more cruel, ruthless and +irresistible. It seemed more and more probable that no man would ever +again endure the infernal horrors of a battlefield and that, after the +first slaughter, the opposing armies, officers and men alike, all +seized with insuppressible panic, would turn their backs upon one +another, in simultaneous, supernatural affright, and flee from +unearthly terrors exceeding the most monstrous anticipations of those +who had let them loose. + + +2 + +To our great astonishment the very opposite is now proclaimed. + +We realize with amazement that until to-day we had but an incomplete +and inaccurate conception of man's courage. We looked upon it as an +exceptional virtue and one which is the more admired as being also the +rarer the farther we go back in history. Remember, for instance, +Homer's heroes, the ancestors of all the heroes of our day. Study them +closely. These models of antiquity, the first professors, the first +masters of bravery, are not really very brave. They have a wholesome +dread of being hit or wounded and an ingenuous and manifest fear of +death. Their mighty conflicts are declamatory and decorative but not +so very bloody; they inflict more noise than pain upon their +adversaries, they deliver many more words than blows. Their defensive +weapons--and this is characteristic--are greatly superior to their +arms of offence; and death is an unusual, unforeseen and almost +indecorous event which throws the ranks into disorder and most often +puts a stop to the combat or provokes a headlong flight that seems +quite natural. As for the wounds, these are enumerated and described, +sung and deplored as so many remarkable phenomena. On the other hand, +the most discreditable routs, the most shameful panics are frequent; +and the old poet relates them, without condemning them, as ordinary +incidents to be ascribed to the gods and inevitable in any warfare. + +This kind of courage is that of all antiquity, more or less. We will +not linger over it, nor delay to consider the battles of the Middle +Ages or the Renascence, in which the fiercest hand-to-hand encounters +of the mercenaries often left not more than half-a-dozen victims on +the field. Let us rather come straight to the great wars of the +Empire. Here the courage displayed begins to resemble our own, but +with notable differences. In the first place, those concerned were +solely professionals. We see not a whole nation fighting, but a +delegation, a martial selection, which, it is true, becomes gradually +more extensive, but never, as in our time, embraces every man between +eighteen and fifty years of age capable of shouldering a weapon. +Again--and above all--every war was reduced to two or three pitched +battles, that is to say, two or three culminating moments; immense +efforts, but efforts of a few hours, or a day at most, towards which +the combatants directed all the vigour and all the heroism accumulated +during long weeks or months of preparation and waiting. Afterwards, +whether the result was victory or defeat, the fighting was over; +relaxation, respite and rest followed; men went back to their homes. +Destiny must not be defied more than once; and they knew that in the +most terrible affray the chances of escaping death were as twenty to +one. + + +3 + +Nowadays, everything is changed; and death itself is no longer what it +was. Formerly, you looked it in the face, you knew whence it came and +who sent it to you. It had a dreadful aspect, but one that remained +human. Its ways were not unknown: its long spells of sleep, its brief +awakenings, its bad days and dangerous hours. At present, to all these +horrors it adds the great, intolerable fear of mystery. It no longer +has any aspect, no longer has habits or spells of sleep and it is +never still. It is always ready, always on the watch, everywhere +present, scattered, intangible and dense, stealthy and cowardly, +diffuse, all-encompassing, innumerous, looming at every point of the +horizon, rising from the waters and falling from the skies, +indefatigable, inevitable, filling the whole of space and time for +days, weeks and months without a minute's lull, without a second's +intermission. Men live, move and sleep in the meshes of its fatal web. +They know that the least step to the right or left, a head bowed or +lifted, a body bent or upright is seen by its eyes and draws its +thunder. + +Hitherto we had no example of this preponderance of the destructive +forces. We should never have believed that man's nerves could resist +so great a trial. The nerves of the bravest man are tempered to face +death for the space of a second, but not to live in the hourly +expectation of death and nothing else. Heroism was once a sharp and +rugged peak, reached for a moment but soon quitted, for +mountain-peaks are not inhabitable. To-day it is a boundless plain, as +uninhabitable as the peaks; but we are not permitted to descend from +it. And so, at the very moment when man appeared most exhausted and +enervated by the comforts and vices of civilization, at the moment +when he was happiest and therefore most selfish, when, possessing the +minimum of faith and vainly seeking a new ideal, he seemed least +capable of sacrificing himself for an idea of any kind, he finds +himself suddenly confronted with an unprecedented danger, which he is +almost certain that the most heroic nations of history would not have +faced nor even dreamed of facing, whereas he does not even dream that +it is possible to do aught but face it. And let it not be said that we +had no choice, that the danger and the struggle were thrust upon us, +that we had to defend ourselves or die and that in such cases there +are no cowards. It is not true: there was, there always has been, +there still is a choice. + + +4 + +It is not man's life that is at stake, but the idea which he forms of +the honour, the happiness and the duties of his life. To save his life +he had but to submit to the enemy; the invader would not have +exterminated him. You cannot exterminate a great people; it is not +even possible to enslave it seriously or to inflict great sorrow upon +it for long. He had nothing to be afraid of except disgrace. He did +not so much as see the infamous temptation appear above the horizon of +his most instinctive fears; he does not even suspect that it is able +to exist; and he will never perceive it, whatever sacrifices may yet +await him. We are not, therefore, speaking of a heroism that would be +but the last resource of despair, the heroism of the animal driven to +bay and fighting blindly to delay death's coming for a moment. No, it +is heroism freely donned, deliberately and unanimously hailed, heroism +on behalf of an idea and a sentiment, in other words, heroism in its +clearest, purest and most virginal form, a disinterested and +whole-hearted sacrifice for that which men regard as their duty to +themselves, to their kith and kin, to mankind and to the future. If +life and personal safety were more precious than the idea of honour, +of patriotism and of fidelity to tradition and the race, there was, I +repeat, and there is still a choice to be made; and never perhaps in +any war was the choice easier, for never did men feel more free, never +indeed were they more free to choose. + +But this choice, as I have said, did not dare show its faintest shadow +on the lowest horizons of even the most ignoble consciences. Are you +quite sure that, in other times which we think better and more +virtuous than our own, men would not have seen it, would not have +spoken of it? Can you find a nation, even among the greatest, which, +after six months of a war compared with which all other wars seem +child's-play, of a war which threatens and uses up all that nation's +life and all its possessions, can you find, I say, in history, not an +instance--for there is no instance--but some similar case which allows +you to presume that the nation would not have faltered, would not at +least, were it but for a second, have looked down and cast its eyes +upon an inglorious peace? + + +5 + +Nevertheless, they seemed much stronger than we are, all those who +came before us. They were rude, austere, much closer to nature, poor +and often unhappy. They had a simpler and a more rigid code of +thought; they had the habit of physical suffering, of hardship and of +death. But I do not believe that any one dares contend that these men +would have done what our soldiers are now doing, that they would have +endured what is being endured all around us. Are we not entitled to +conclude from this that civilization, contrary to what was feared, so +far from enervating, depraving, weakening, lowering and dwarfing man, +elevates him, purifies him, strengthens him, ennobles him, makes him +capable of acts of sacrifice, generosity and courage which he did not +know before? The fact is that civilization, even when it seems to +entail corruption, brings intelligence with it and that intelligence, +in days of trial, stands for potential pride, nobility and heroism. +That, as I said in the beginning, is the unexpected and consoling +revelation of this horrible war: we can rely on man implicitly, place +the greatest trust in him, nor fear lest, in laying aside his +primitive brutality, he should lose his manly qualities. The greater +his progress in the conquest of nature and the greater his apparent +attachment to material welfare, the more does he become capable, +nevertheless, unconsciously, deep down in the best part of him, of +self-detachment and of self-sacrifice for the common safety and the +more does he understand that he is nothing when he compares himself +with the eternal life of his forbears and his children. + +It was so great a trial that we dared not, before this war, have +contemplated it. The future of the human race was at stake; and the +magnificent response that comes to us from every side reassures us +fully as to the issue of other struggles, more formidable still, which +no doubt await us when it will be a question no longer of fighting our +fellow-men, but rather of facing the more powerful and cruel of the +great mysterious enemies that nature holds in reserve against us. If +it be true, as I believe, that humanity is worth just as much as the +sum total of latent heroism which it contains, then we may declare +that humanity was never stronger nor more exemplary than now and that +it is at this moment reaching one of its highest points and capable of +braving everything and hoping everything. And it is for this reason +that, despite our present sadness, we are entitled to congratulate +ourselves and to rejoice. + + * * * * * + + + + +PRO PATRIA: II + + + + +VII + +PRO PATRIA: II[3] + + +1 + +More than three months ago, I was in one of the grandest of your +cities, a city that welcomed in a manner which I shall never forget +the cause which I had come among you to represent. I was there, as I +told my hearers at the time, in the name of the last remnants of +beauty that the barbarians had left us, to plead with the land of +every kind of beauty. Those threatened beauties, our only cities yet +intact, the treasures and sanctuaries of our whole past and of all our +race, are still reeling on the brink of the same abyss and, failing a +miracle which we dare not hope for, they will suffer the fate of +Ypres, Louvain, Malines, Termonde, Dixmude and so many other less +illustrious victims. The danger in which they stand has no doubt +aroused the indignation of the civilized world; but not a hand has +armed itself to defend them. I blame no one; I reproach no one; the +morality of the nations is a virtue that has not yet emerged from the +state of infancy; and fortunately, by the hazard of war, it is not yet +too late to save four innocent cities. + +To-day I have not come to speak of monuments, of historical relics, +nor even of the wrongs committed, of the violation of all the rights +and laws of warfare and every international convention, of +incendiarism, pillage and massacre; I have come simply to utter before +you the last distressful cry of a dying nation. + +At this moment a tragedy is being enacted in Belgium such as has no +precedent in the history of civilized peoples, nor even in that of +the barbarians, for the barbarians, when committing their most +stupendous crimes, lacked the infernal deliberation and the +scientific, all-powerful means of working evil which to-day are in the +hands of those who profit by the resources and benefits of +civilization only to turn them against it and to seek the annihilation +of all its noblest and most generous characteristics. The despairing +rumours of this tragedy come to us only through the chinks of that +ensanguined well which isolates it from the rest of the world. Nothing +reaches our ears but the lies of the enemy. In reality, the whole of +Belgium is one huge Prussian prison, where every cry is cruelly and +methodically stifled and where no voices are heard save those of the +gaolers. Only now and again, after a thousand adventures, despite a +thousand perils, a letter from some kinsman or captive friend arrives +from the depths of that great living cemetery, bringing us a gleam of +authentic truth. + + +2 + +You are as familiar with this truth as I am. At the moment when her +soil was invaded, Belgium numbered seven million seven hundred +thousand inhabitants. It is estimated that between two hundred and +fifty and three hundred thousand have perished in battle or massacre, +or as the result of misery and privation; and I am not speaking of the +infant children, the sacrifice of whom, owing to the dearth of milk, +has, it appears, been frightful. Five or six hundred thousand +unfortunates have fled to Holland, France or England. There remain +therefore in the country nearly seven million inhabitants; and more +than half of these seven millions are living almost exclusively on +American charity. In what is above all an industrial country, +producing normally, in time of peace, less than a third part of the +wheat necessary for home consumption, the enemy has systematically +requisitioned everything, carried off everything, for the upkeep of +his armies, and has sent into Germany what he could not consume on the +spot. The result of so monstrous a proceeding may readily be divined: +on all that soil, once so happy and so rich, to-day taxed and pillaged +and pillaged again, ravaged and devastated by fire and the sword, +there is nothing left. And the situation of suffering Belgium is so +cruelly paradoxical that her best friends, her dearest allies, even +those whom she has saved, are powerless to succour her. Isolated as +she is from the rest of the world, she would have starved even though +nothing had been taken from her. Now she has been despoiled of all +that she possessed, while France and England can send her neither +money nor provisions, for they would fall into the hands of those +engaged in torturing her, so much so that every attempt on their part +to alleviate her sufferings would but retard her deliverance still +further. Did history ever witness a more poignant, a more desperate +tragedy? It is a fact that in the midst of this war we are constantly +finding ourselves confronted with events such as history hitherto has +never beheld. A people resembling an enormous beast of prey, in order +to punish a loyalty and heroism which, if it retained the slightest +notion of justice and injustice, the smallest sense of human dignity +and honour, it ought to worship on its knees: this vast predatory race +stealthily resolved to exterminate an inoffensive little nation whose +soul it felt was too great to be enslaved or reduced to the semblance +of its conqueror's. It was on the point of succeeding, amid the +silence, the impotence, or the terror of the world, when from beyond +the Atlantic a generous nation took that heroic little people under +its protection. It understood that what was involved was not merely an +act of justice and elementary pity, but also and more particularly a +higher duty towards the morality and the eternal conscience of +mankind. Thanks to this great nation's intervention, it will not be +said, in the days to come, that justice, loyalty, honesty and heroism +are no more than dangerous illusions and a fool's bargain, or that +evil must necessarily, at all times and places, conquer whenever it is +backed by force, or that the only reward which duty magnificently done +may hope to receive on this earth is every manner of grief and +disaster, ending in death by starvation. So immense and triumphant an +example of iniquity would strike the ideals of mankind a blow from +which they would not recover for centuries. + + +3 + +But already this help is becoming exhausted; it cannot be indefinitely +prolonged; and very soon it will be insufficient. It is, moreover, at +the mercy of the slightest diplomatic or political complication; and +its failure will be irreparable. It will mean utter famine, unexampled +extermination, which till the end of the world will cry to heaven for +vengeance. It is no longer a question of weeks or months, but one of +days. That is where we stand; and these are the last hours granted by +destiny to an inactive Europe wherein to expunge the shame of her +indifference. + +These hours belong almost solely to you, for others have not your +power. Whatever may happen, however long you may postpone the issue, +one of these days you will be obliged to join in the fray. Everything +advises, everything orders you to do so; and I can see nothing on the +side of honour, justice or humanity, on the side of the will of the +centuries or the human race, nor even on the side of prudence and +self-interest, that allows you to avoid it. Is it not better and more +worthy of yourselves than all the subtleties, plottings and petty +bargainings of diplomacy? + +The one hour, the peremptory hour has struck when your aid can break +the balance between the powers of good and evil which, for more than +two hundred days, have kept the future of Europe hanging over the +abyss. + +Fate has granted you the magnificent boon, the all but divine +privilege, of saving from the most horrible of deaths four or five +millions of innocent human beings, four or five millions of martyrs +who have performed the finest action that a people could perform and +who are perishing because they defended the ideals which your fathers +taught them. I know that we are faced by duties which until to-day had +never entered into the morality of States; for it is but too true that +this morality still lags a thousand miles behind that of the meanest +peasant. But, if such a thing has never yet been done, it is all the +more glorious to be the first to do it, to make an effort that will +raise the life of nations to a level which the life of the individual +has long since attained. And no people is better qualified than the +Italian to make this effort which the world and the future are +awaiting as a deliverance. + +But I will say no more. I have been reproached for speaking of matters +which, as a foreigner, I ought not to discuss. I believed that these +great questions of humanity interested the whole human race. Perhaps I +was wrong. I will respect the profound silence in which great actions +are developed; and I leave to the meditation of your hearts that which +I am constrained to leave unsaid. They will tell you very much better +than I could all that I had to say to you. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 3: Delivered in Rome, before the Associazione della Stampa, +13 March, 1915.] + + * * * * * + + + + +PRO PATRIA: III + + + + +VIII + +PRO PATRIA: III[4] + + +1 + +Although nothing entitles me to the honour of addressing you in the +name of my refugee countrymen, nevertheless it is only fitting, since +a kindly insistence brings me here, that I should in the first place +give thanks to England for the manner in which she welcomed them in +their distress. I am but a voice in the crowd; and, if my words exceed +the limits of this hall and lend to him who utters them an authority +which he himself does not possess, it is only because they are filled +with unbounded gratitude. + +In this horrible war, whose stakes are the salvation and the future of +mankind, let us first of all salute our wonderful sister, France, who +is supporting the heaviest burden and who, for more than eleven +months, having broken its first and most formidable onslaught, has +been struggling, foot by foot, at closest quarters, without faltering, +without remission, with an heroic smile, against the most formidable +organization of pillage, massacre and devastation that the world or +hell itself has seen since man first learnt the history of the planet +on which he lives. We have here a revelation of qualities and virtues +surpassing all that we expected from a nation which nevertheless had +accustomed us to expect of her all that goes to make the beauty and +the glory of humanity. One must reside in France, as I have done for +many years, to understand and admire as it deserves the incomparable +lesson in courage, abnegation, firmness, determination, coolness, +conscious dignity, self-mastery, good-humour, chivalrous generosity +and utter charity and self-sacrifice which this great and noble +people, which has civilized more than half the globe, is at the +present moment teaching the civilized world. + +Let us also salute boundless Russia, with her wonderful soldiers, +innocent and ingenuous as the saints of old, ignorant of fear as +children who do not yet know the meaning of death. Yonder, along a +formidable front running from the Baltic to the Black Sea, with silent +multitudinous heroism, amid defeats which are but victories delayed, +she is beginning the great work of our deliverance, Lastly let us +greet Servia, small but prodigious, whom we must one day place on the +summit of that monument of glory which Europe will raise to-morrow to +the memory of those who have freed her from her chains. + +So much for them. They have a right to all our gratitude, to all our +admiration. They are doing magnificently all that had to be done. But +they occupy a place apart in duty's splendid hierarchy. They are the +protagonists of direct, material, tangible, undeniable, inevitable +duty. This war is their war. If they would not accept the worst of +disgraces, if they were not prepared to suffer servitude, massacre, +ruin and famine, they had to undertake it; they could not do +otherwise. They were attacked by the born enemy, the irreducible and +absolute enemy, of whom they knew enough to understand that they had +nothing to expect from him but total and unremitting disaster. It was +a question of their continued existence in this world. They had no +choice; they had to defend themselves; and any other nation in their +place would have done the same, only there are few who would have done +it with the same spirit of self-abnegation, the same devotion, the +same perseverance, the same loyalty and the same smiling courage. + + +2 + +But for us Belgians--and we may say as much for you English--it was +not a question of this kind of duty. The horrible drama did not +concern us. It demanded only the right to pass us by without touching +us; and, far from doing us any harm, it would have flooded us with the +unclaimed riches which armies on the march drag in their wake. We +Belgians in particular, peaceable, hospitable, inoffensive and almost +unarmed, should, by the very treaties which assured our existence, +have remained complete strangers to this war. To be sure, we loved +France, because we knew her as well as we knew ourselves and because +she makes herself beloved by all who know her. But we entertained no +hatred of Germany. It is true that, in spite of the virtues which we +believed her to possess but which were merely the mask of a spy, our +hearts barely responded to her obsequiously treacherous advances. For +the German, of all the inhabitants of our planet, has this one and +singular peculiarity, that he arouses in us, from the onset, a +profound, instinctive, intuitive feeling of antipathy. But, even so +and wherever our preferences may have lain, our treaties, our pledged +word, the very reason of our existence, all forbade us to take part in +the conflict. Then came the incredible ultimatum, the monstrous demand +of which you know, which gave us twelve hours to choose between ruin +and death or dishonour. As you also know, we did not need twelve hours +to make our choice. This choice was no more than a cry of indignation +and resolution, spontaneous, fierce and irresistible. We did not stay +for a moment to ponder the extenuating circumstances which our +weakness might have invoked. We did not for a moment consider the +absolution which history would have granted us later, on realizing +that a conflict between forces so completely disproportioned was +futile, that we must inevitably be crushed, massacred and annihilated +and that the sacrifice of a little people in its entirety could +prevent nothing, could barely cause delay and would have no weight in +the immense balance into which the world's destinies were about to be +flung. There was no question of all this; we saw one thing only: our +plighted word. For that word we must die; and since then we have been +dying. Trace the course of history as far back as you will; question +the nations of the earth; then name those who have done or who would +have done what we did. How many will you find? I am not judging those +whom I pass over in silence, for to do so would be to enter into the +secret of men's hearts which I have not the right to violate; but in +any case there is one which I can name aloud, without fear of being +mistaken; and that is the British nation. This people too entered into +the conflict, not through interest or necessity or inherited hatred, +but simply for a matter of honour. It has not suffered what we have +suffered; it has not risked what we have risked, which is all that we +possessed beneath the arch of heaven; but it owes this immunity only +to outside circumstances. The principle and the quality of the act are +the same. We stand on the same plane, one step higher than the other +combatants. While the others are the soldiers of necessity, we are the +volunteers of honour; and, without detracting from their merits, this +title adds to ours all that a pure and disinterested idea adds to the +noblest acts of courage. There is not a doubt but that in our place +you would have done precisely what we did. You would have done it with +the same simplicity, the same calm and confident ardour, the same good +faith. You would have thrown yourselves into the breach as +whole-heartedly, with the same scorn of useless phrases and the same +stubborn conscientiousness. And the reason why I do not shrink from +singing in your presence the praises of what we have done is that +these praises also affect yourselves, who would not have hesitated to +do the selfsame things. + + +3 + +In short, we have both the same conception of honour; and a like idea +must needs bear like fruits. In your eyes as in ours, a formal +promise, a word once given is the most sacred thing that can pass +between man and man. Now far more than the valour of a man--because it +rises to much greater heights and extends to much greater +distances--the valour of a people depends upon the conception of its +honour which that people holds and, above all, upon the sacrifices +which it is capable of making for the sake of that honour. We may +differ upon all the other ideas that guide the actions of mankind, +notably upon the religious idea; but those who do not agree on this +one point are unworthy of the name of man. It represents the purest +flame, the ever more ardent focus of all human dignity and virtue. + +You have sacrificed yourselves wholly to this idea; and, in the name +of this idea, which is as vital and as powerful in your souls as in +ours, you came to our aid, as we knew that you would come, for we +counted on you as surely as you counted on us. You are ready to make +the same sacrifices; and already you are proudly supporting the +heaviest of sacrifices. Thus, in this stupendous struggle, we are +united by bonds even more fraternal than those which bind the other +Allies. Our union is more lofty and more generous, for it is based +wholly upon the noblest thoughts and feelings that can inspire the +heart. And this union, which is marked by a mutual confidence and +affection that grow hourly deeper and wider, is helping us both to go +even beyond our duty. + +For we have gone beyond it; and we are exceeding it daily. We have +done and are doing far more than we were bound to do. It was for us +Belgians to resist, loyally, vigorously, to the utmost of our +strength, as we had promised. But the most sensitive honour would have +allowed us to lay down our arms after the immense and heroic effort of +the first few days and to trust to the victor's clemency when he +recognized that we were beaten. Nothing compelled us to immolate +ourselves entirely, to surrender, in succession, as a burnt-offering +to our ideals, all that we possessed on earth and to continue the +struggle after we were crushed, even in the last torments of +starvation, which to-day holds three millions of us in its grip. +Nothing compelled us to this course, other than the increasingly lofty +ideal of duty held by those who began by putting it into practice and +are now living in its fulfilment. + +As for you English, you had to come to our assistance, that is to say, +to send us the troops which you had ready under arms; but nothing +compelled you either, after the first useless engagements, to devote +yourselves with unparalleled ardour and self-sacrifice, to hurl into +the mortal and stupendous battle the whole of your youth, the fairest +upon earth, and all your riches, the most prodigious in this world, +nor to conjure up from your soil, by a miracle which was thought +impossible, in fewer months than the years that would have seemed +needful, the most gallant, determined and tenacious armies that have +yet been marshalled in this war. Nothing compelled you, save the +spirit of emulation, the same mad love of duty, the same passion for +justice, the same idolatry of the given word which, that it may be +sure of doing all that it promised, performs far more than it would +have dared to promise. + + +4 + +Now, during the last few weeks, a new combatant has entered the lists, +one who occupies a place quite apart in the sacred hierarchy of duty +and honour and in the moral history of this war. I speak of Italy; and +I pay her the tribute of homage which is her due and which I well know +that you will render with me, for you of all nations are qualified to +do so. + +Italy had no treaty except with our enemies. Her first act of +justice, when confronted with an iniquitous aggression, was to discard +this treaty, which was about to draw her into a crime which she had +the courage to judge and condemn from the outset, while her former +allies were still in the full flush of a might that seemed unshakable. +After this verdict, which was worthy of the land where justice first +saw the light, she found herself free; she now owed no obligations to +any one. There was nothing left to compel her to rush into this +carnage, which she could contemplate calmly from the vantage of her +delightful cities; and she had only to wait till the twelfth hour to +gather its first fruits. There was no longer any compact, any written +bond, signed by the hands of kings or peoples, that could involve her +destiny. But now, at the spectacle, unforeseen and daily more +abominable and disconcerting, of the barbarian invasion, words +half-effaced and secret treaties written by unknown hands on the +souls and consciences of all men revealed themselves and slowly +gathered life and radiance. To some extent I was a witness of these +things; and I was able, so to speak, to follow with my eyes the +awakening and the irresistible promulgation of those great and +mysterious laws of justice, pity and love which are higher and more +imperishable than all those which we have engraved in marble or +bronze. With the increase of the crimes, the power of these laws +increased and extended. We may regard the intervention of Italy in +many ways. Like every human action and, above all, like every +political action, it is due to a thousand causes, many of which are +trifling. Among them we may see the legitimate hatred and the eternal +resentment felt towards an hereditary enemy. We may discover an +interested intention to take part, without too much risk, in a +victory already certain and in its previously allotted spoils. We may +see in it anything that we please: the resolves of men contain factors +of all kinds; but we must pity those who are able to consider none but +the meaner sides of the matter, for these are the only sides which +never count and which are always deceptive. To find the real and +lasting truth, we must learn to view the great masses and the great +feelings of mankind from above. It is in them and in their great and +simple movements that the will of the soul and of destiny is asserted, +for these two form the eternal substance of a people. And, in the +present case, the movement of the great masses and the great feelings +of the people took the form of an immense impulse of sympathy and +indignation, which gradually increased, penetrating farther and +farther into the popular strata and gathering volume as it +progressed, until it urged a whole nation to assume the burden of a +war which it knew to be crushing and merciless, a war which each of +those who called for it knew to be a war which he himself must wage, +with his own hands, with his own body, a war which would wrest him +from the pleasant ways of peace, from his labours and his comforts, +which would weigh terribly upon all those whom he loved, which would +expose him for weeks, perhaps for months, to incredible sufferings and +which meant almost certain death to a third or a half of those who +demanded the right to brave it. And all this, I repeat, occurred +without any material necessity, from no other motive than a fine sense +of honour and a magnificent surge of admiration and pity for a small +foreign nation that was being unjustly martyred. We cannot repeat it +too often: here, as in the case of the sacrifice which Belgium and +England offered to the ideal of honour, is a new and unprecedented +fact in history. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 4: Delivered in London, at the Queen's Hall, 7 July, 1915.] + + * * * * * + + + + +BELGIUM'S FLAG DAY + + + + +IX + +BELGIUM'S FLAG DAY + + +1 + +To-day our flag will quiver in every French hand as a symbol of love +and gratitude. This day should be a day of hope and glory for all +Belgium. + +Let us forget for a moment our terrible distress; let us forget our +plains and meadows, the fairest and most fertile in Europe, now +ravaged to such a degree that the utmost that one can say is powerless +to give any idea of a desolation which seems irremediable. Let us +forget--if to forget them be possible--the women, the children, the +old men, peaceable and innocent, who have been massacred in their +thousands, the tale of whom will amaze the world when once the grim +barrier is broken behind which so many secret horrors are being +committed. Let us forget those who are dying of hunger in our country, +a land without harvests and without homes, a land methodically taxed, +pillaged and crushed until it is drained of the last drop of its +life-blood. Let us forget those remnants of our people who are +scattered hither and thither, who have trodden the path of exile, who +are living on public charity, which, though it show itself full of +brotherhood and affection, is yet so oppressive to those supremely +industrious hands, which had never known the grievous burden of alms. +Let us forget even those last of our cities to be menaced, the +fairest, the proudest, the most beloved of our cities, which +constitute the very face of our country and which only a miracle could +now save. Let us forget, in a word, the greatest calamity and the most +crying injustice of history and think to-day only of our approaching +deliverance. It is not too early to hail it. It is already in all our +thoughts, as it is in all our hearts. It is already in the air which +we breathe, in all the eyes that smile at us, in all the voices that +welcome us, in all the hands outstretched to us, waving the laurels +which they hold; for what is bringing us deliverance is the wonder, +the admiration of the whole world! + + +2 + +To-morrow we shall go back to our homes. We shall not mourn though we +find them in ruins. They will rise again more beautiful than of old +from the ashes and the shards. We shall know days of heroic poverty; +but we have learnt that poverty is powerless to sadden souls upheld by +a great love and nourished by a noble ideal. We shall return with +heads erect, regenerated in a regenerated Europe, rejuvenated by our +magnificent misfortune, purified by victory and cleansed of the +littleness that obscured the virtues which slumbered within us and of +which we are not aware. We shall have lost all the goods that perish +but as readily come to live again. And in their place we shall have +acquired those riches which shall not again perish within our hearts. +Our eyes were closed to many things; now they have opened upon wider +horizons. Of old we dared not avert our gaze from our wealth, our +petty comforts, our little rooted habits. But now our eyes have been +wrested from the soil; now they have achieved the sight of heights +that were hitherto unnoticed. We did not know ourselves; we used not +to love one another sufficiently; but we have learnt to know ourselves +in the amazement of glory and to love one another in the grievous +ardour of the most stupendous sacrifice that any people has ever +accomplished. We were on the point of forgetting the heroic virtues, +the unfettered thoughts, the eternal ideas that lead humanity. To-day, +not only do we know that they exist: we have taught the world that +they are always triumphant, that nothing is lost while faith is left, +while honour is intact, while love continues, while the soul does not +surrender and that the most monstrous of powers will never prevail +against those ideal forces which are the happiness and the glory of +man and the sole reason for his existence. + + * * * * * + + + + +ON THE DEATH OF A LITTLE SOLDIER + + + + +X + +ON THE DEATH OF A LITTLE SOLDIER + + +1 + +When I speak of this little soldier who fell a few days ago, up there +in the Vosges, it is not that I may mourn him publicly. It behoves us +in these days to mourn our dead in secret. Personal sorrows no longer +count; and we must learn how to suppress them in the presence of that +greater sorrow which extends over all the world, the particular sorrow +of the mothers who are setting us an example of the most heroic +silence that human suffering has been taught to observe since +suffering first visited womankind. For the admirable silence of the +mothers is one of the great and striking lessons of this war. Amid +that tragic and sublime silence no regret dare make itself heard. + +But, though my grief remains dumb, my admiration can still raise its +voice; and in speaking of this young soldier, who had not reached +man's estate and who died as the bravest of men, I speak of all his +brothers-in-arms and hail thousands like him in his name, which name +becomes a great and glorious symbol; for at this time, when a +prodigious wave of unselfishness and courage, surging up from the very +depths of the human race, uplifts the men who are fighting and giving +their lives for its future, they all resemble one another in the same +perfection. + + +2 + +My friend Raymond Bon was a sergeant in the 27th battalion of the +Chasseurs Alpins. He left for the front in August, 1914, with the +other recruits of the 1915 class, which means that he was hardly +twenty years of age; and he won his stripes on the battlefield, after +being twice named in dispatches. The second time was on returning from +a murderous assault at Thann, in Upper Alsace, in which he had greatly +distinguished himself. I quote the exact words: + + "Corporal Bon is mentioned in the orders of the battalion + for his gallantry under fire and his indifference to danger. + When the leader of his section was killed, Bon took command, + rushed to the front and, shouting to his men to follow him, + gave proofs of the greatest initiative and courage. He was + the first in the enemy's trenches with his section." + +That day he was promoted to sergeant and complimented by the general +in front of his battalion in the following terms: + + "This is the second time, my friend, that I am told what + you have done; next time you shall be told what I have + done." + +To-day men tell of his death, but also of the undying glory which +death alone confers. + + "At Hartmannsviller," writes one of Bon's comrades, + "according to his captain's story, our friend's company was + held in reserve, waiting to support the attack delivered by + a regiment of infantry. The order came to support and + reinforce the attack. The company at once leapt from the + trenches, with the captain and Bon at its head. There was a + salvo of artillery; and the bursting of a great shell caught + Raymond almost full in the body, smashing his right leg and + his chest. The captain was hit in the right hand. + Notwithstanding his horrible wounds, Bon did not lose + consciousness; he was able to stammer out a few words and to + press the hand which the captain gave him. In less than two + minutes all was over." + +And the captain adds: + + "Always ready to sacrifice himself; a brave among the + brave." + +These are modest and yet glorious details: modest because they are so +very common, because they are constantly being repeated in their noble +monotony and springing up from every side, numberless as the essential +actions of our daily life; and glorious because before this war they +seemed so rare and almost legendary and incomprehensible. + + +3 + +Raymond Bon was a child of the south, of that Provence which, day +after day, is shedding torrents of its blood to wipe out slanders +which we can no longer remember without turning pale with anger and +indignation. He was born at Avignon, the old city of the Popes and the +cicadas, where men have louder accents and lighter hearts than +elsewhere. He was a little boxing-master, who earned a livelihood at +Nice for himself and his destitute parents by giving lessons in the +noble art of self-defence with the good, ever-ready weapons which +nature has bestowed upon us. He boasted no other education than that +which a lad picks up at the primary school; but, almost illiterate as +he was, he possessed all the refinement, the innate culture, the +unconscious delicacy and tact, the kindliness of speech and feeling +and the beautiful heart of that comely race whose foremost sons seem +to be purified and spiritualized from their first childish steps by +the most radiant sunshine in the world. One would say that they were +directly related to those exquisite ephebes of ancient Greece who +sprang into existence ready to understand all things and to +experience life's purest emotions before they themselves had lived. My +reason for insisting upon the point is that, in this respect above +all, he represented thousands and thousands of young men from that +wonderful region where all the best and most lovable qualities of +mankind lie hidden all around beneath the indifferent surface of +everyday existence, only awaiting a favourable occasion to blossom +into astonishing flowers of grace and generosity and heroism. + + +4 + +When I heard that he had gone to the front, I felt a melancholy +certainty that I should never set eyes on him again. He was of those +whose fate there is no mistaking. He was one of those predestined +heroes whose courage marks them out beforehand for death and laurels. +I but too well knew his eagerness, his unbounded sincerity and +single-mindedness and his great heart: that admirable heart devoid of +all caution or ulterior motive or calculation, that heart turned, at +all times and with all its might, purely towards honour and duty. He +was bound to be in the trenches and in the bayonet-charge the same man +that I had so often seen in the ring, taking risks from the start, +taking them wholesale, unremittingly, blindly and cheerfully and +always ready with his pleasant smile, like that of a shy child, at any +time to face whatever giant might have challenged him. + +I remember that one day in the year 1914, he was training Georges +Carpentier, who was to meet some negro heavy-weight or other. The +disproportion in the strength of the two men struck my friends and me +as rather alarming; and we took the champion of the world aside and +begged him not to hit too hard and to spare our little instructor as +much as he could. That good fellow Carpentier, who is full of +chivalrous gentleness, promised to do what we asked; but after the +first round he came back to us and said: + +"I can't let him off just as lightly as I should like. The little chap +is too plucky and too sensitive; and I have to hit out in earnest. +Besides, he overheard you and what he says is, 'Never mind what the +gentlemen say; they are much too considerate and are always afraid of +my getting smashed up. There's no fear of that. You go for me hard, +else we sha'n't be doing good work.'" + + +5 + +"Good work." That is evidently what he did down at the front and what +all of them there are doing. It is indeed fine work, the most glorious +that a man can perform, to die like that for a cause whose triumph he +will not behold, for benefits which he does not reap and which will +accrue solely to his fellow-men whom he will never see again. For, +apart from those benefits, like so many other men, like almost all the +others, he had nothing to gain and nothing to lose by this war. All +that he possessed in the world was the strength of his two arms; and +that strength finds a country everywhere. + +But we are no longer concerned with the personal and immediate +interests that guide nearly all the actions of everyday life. A +loftier ideal has visited men's minds and occupies them wholly; and +the least prepared, the humblest, the minds that seemed to understand +hardly anything of the existence that came before the tremendous +trial, now feel it and live it as thoroughly and with the same +infinite ampleness as do those minds which thought themselves alone +capable of grasping it, of considering it from above or contemplating +it from every side. Never did a sheer ideal sink so deeply into so +many hearts or abide there for so long without wavering or faltering. +And therefore, beyond a doubt, somewhere on high, in the heart of the +unknown powers that rule us, there is being piled up at this moment +the most wonderful treasure of immaterial forces that man has ever +possessed, one upon which he will draw until the end of time; for in +that superhuman treasure-house nothing is lost and we are still living +day by day on the virtues stored in it long centuries ago by the +heroes of Greece and Rome, by the saints and martyrs of the primitive +Church and by the flower of mediaeval chivalry. + + * * * * * + + + + +THE HOUR OF DESTINY + + + + +XI + +THE HOUR OF DESTINY + + +1 + +We are already free to speak of this war as if it were ended and of +victory as if it were assured. In principle, in the region of moral +certainties, Germany has been beaten since the battle of the Marne; +and reality, which is always slower, because it goes burdened beneath +the weight of matter, must needs come obediently to join the ranks of +those certainties. The last agony may be prolonged for weeks and +months, for the animal is endowed with the stubborn and almost +inextinguishable vitality of the beasts of prey; but it is wounded to +the death; and we have only to wait patiently, weapon in hand, for the +final convulsions that announce the end. The historic event, the +greatest beyond doubt since man possessed a history, is therefore +accomplished; and, strange to say, it seems as though it had been +accomplished in spite of history, against its laws and contrary to its +wishes. It is rash, I know, to speak of such things; and it behoves us +to be very cautious in these speculations which pass the scope of +human understanding; but, when we consider what the annals of this +earth of ours have taught us, it seemed written in the book of the +world's destinies that Germany was bound to win. It was not only, as +we are too ready at the first glance to believe, the megalomania of an +autocrat drunk with vanity, the gross vanity of some brainless +buffoon; it was not the warlike impulses, the blind infatuation and +egoism of a feudal caste; it was not even the impatient and +deliberately fanned envy and covetousness of a too prolific race +close-cramped on a dreary and ungrateful soil: it was none of these +that let loose the hateful war. All these causes, adventitious or +fortuitous as they were, only settled the hour of the decision; but +the decision itself was taken and written, probably ages ago, in other +spheres which cannot be reached by the conscious will of man, spheres +in which dark and mighty laws hold sway over illimitable time and +space. The whole line, the whole huge curve of history showed to the +mind of whosoever tried to read its sacred and fearful hieroglyphics +that the day of a new, a formidable and inexorable event was at hand. + +The theories built up on this point in the last sixty years by the +German professors, notably by Giesbrecht, the historian of the Ottos +and the Hohenstaufens, and Treitschke, the historian of the +Hohenzollerns, do not necessarily carry conviction but are at least +impressive; and the work of these two writers, which we do not know +as well as we should, and of Treitschke in particular possessed in +Germany an influence that sank deep into every mind, far exceeding +that of Nietzsche, which we looked upon as preponderant. + +But let us ignore for the moment all that belongs to a remote past, +the study of which would call for more space than we have at our +disposal. Let us not question the empire of the Ottos, the +Hohenstaufens or the Hapsburgs, in which Germany, at least as a nation +and a race, played but a secondary part and was still unconscious of +her existence. Let us rather see what is happening nearer to us and, +so to speak, before our very eyes. + + +2 + +A hundred years ago, under Napoleon, France enjoyed her spell of +hegemony, which she was not able to prolong because this hegemony was +more the work of a prodigious but accidental genius than the fruit of +a real and intrinsic power. Next came the turn of England, who to-day +possesses the greatest empire that the world has seen since the days +of ancient Rome, that is to say, more than a fifth part of the +habitable globe. But this vast empire rests no more than did +Napoleon's upon an incontestible force, inasmuch as up to this day it +was defended only by an army less numerous and less well-equipped than +that of many a smaller nation, thus almost inevitably inviting war, as +Professor Cramb pointed out a year or two ago in his prophetic book, +_Germany and England_, which has only recently aroused the interest +which it deserves. + +It seemed, therefore, as if between these two Powers, which were more +illusory than real, pending the advent of Russia, whose hour had not +yet struck; in this gap in history, between a nation on the verge of +its decline, or at least seemingly incapable of defending itself, and +a nation that was still too young and incapable of attack, fate +offered a magnificent place to whoso cared to take it. This is what +Germany felt, at first instinctively, urged by all the ill-defined +forces that impel mankind, and subsequently, in these latter years, +with a consciousness that became ever clearer and more persistent. She +grasped the fact that her turn had come to reign over the earth, that +she must take her chance and seize the opportunity that comes but +once. She prepared to answer the call of fate and, supported by the +mysterious aid which it lends to those whom it summons, she did +answer, we must admit, in an astonishing and most formidable manner. + +She was within a hair's breadth of succeeding. A little less prolonged +and less gallant resistance on the part of Belgium, a suspicious +movement from Italy, a false step made upon the banks of the Marne; +and we can picture Paris falling; France overrun and fighting +heroically to her last gasp; Russia, not crushed, but weary of seeking +victory and making terms for good or ill with a conqueror impotent to +harm her; the neutral nations more or less reluctantly siding with the +strongest; England isolated, giving up her colonies to staunch the +wounds of her invaded isle; the fasces of justice broken asunder by a +separate peace here, a separate peace there, each equally humiliating; +and Germany, monstrous, ferocious, implacable, finally towering alone +over the ruins of Europe. + + +3 + +Now it seems that we have turned aside the inflexible decree. It seems +that we have averted the fate that was about to be accomplished. It +was bearing down upon us with the weight of the ages, with all the +weight of all the vague but irresistible aspirations of the past and, +perhaps, the future. Thanks to the greatest effort which mankind has +ever opposed to the unknown gods that rule it, we are entitled to +believe that the decree has broken down and that we have driven it +into the evil cave where never human force before had compelled it to +hide its defeat. + +I say, "It seems;" I say, "We are entitled to believe." The fact is +that the ordeal is not yet past. Even on the day when the war is ended +and when victory is in our hands, destiny will not yet be conquered. +It has happened--seldom, it is true, but still it has happened twice +or thrice--that a nation has compelled the course of fate to turn +aside or to fall back. The nation congratulated herself, even as we +believe that we have the right to do. But events were not slow in +proving that she had congratulated herself too soon. Fatality, that is +to say, the enormous mass of causes and effects of which we have no +understanding, was not overcome; it was only delayed, it awaited its +revenge and its day, or at least what we call its day, which may +extend over a hundred years and more where nations are concerned, for +fatality does not reckon in the manner of men, but after the fashion +of the great movements of nature. It is important at this time to know +whether we shall be able to escape that revenge and that day. If men +and nations were swayed only by reason, if, after being so often the +absolute masters of their happiness and their future, they had not so +often destroyed that which they had just achieved, then we might +say--and indeed ought to say--that our escape depends only upon +ourselves. In point of fact, three-quarters of the risk are run and +the fourth is in our power; we have only to keep it so. Almost all the +chances of the fight are on our side at last; and, when the war is +over, there will be nothing but our wisdom and our will confronting a +destiny which from that time onward will be powerless to take its +course, unless it first succeed in blinding and perverting them. + +In this hour all that lies hidden under that mysterious word will be +waiting on our decision, waiting to know if victory is with us or with +it. It is after we have won that we must really vanquish; it is in the +hour of peace that the actual war will begin against an invisible foe, +a hundred times as dangerous as the one of whom we have seen too much. +If at that hour we do not profit by all our advantages; if we do not +destroy, root and branch, the military power of an enemy who is in +secret alliance with the evil influences of the earth; if we do not +here and now, by an irrevocable compact, forearm ourselves against +our sense of pity and generosity, our weakness, our imprudence, our +future rivalries and discords; if we leave a single outlet to the +beast at bay; if, through our negligence, we give it a single hope, a +single opportunity of coming to the surface and taking breath, then +the vigilant fatality which has but one fixed idea will resume its +progress and pursue its way, dragging history with it and laughing +over its shoulder at man once more tricked and discomfited. Everything +that we have done and suffered, the ruins, the sacrifices, the +nameless tortures and the numberless dead, will have served no purpose +and will be lost beyond redemption. Everything will not have to be +done over again, for nothing is ever done over again and fortunate +opportunities do not occur twice; but everything except our woes and +all their consequences will be as though it had never been. + + +4 + +It will therefore be a matter of holding our own against the enemy +whom we do not see and mastering him until the turn or chance of the +accursed race is past. How long will that be? We cannot tell; but, in +the swift-moving history of to-day, it seems probable that the waiting +and the struggle will be much shorter than they would have been in +former times. Is it possible that fatality--by which I mean what +perhaps for a moment was the unacknowledged desire of the +planet--shall not regain the upper hand? At the stage which man has +reached, I hope and believe so. He had never conquered it before; but +also he had not yet risen to the height which he has now attained. +There is no reason why that which has never happened should not take +place one day; and everything seems to tell us that man is approaching +the day whereon, seizing the most glorious opportunity that has ever +presented itself since he acquired a consciousness, he will at last +learn that he is able, when he pleases, to control his whole fate in +this world. + + * * * * * + + + + +IN ITALY + + + + +XII + +IN ITALY + + +1 + +A few days before Italy formed her great resolve, the following lines +appeared in one of the leading Pangermanic organs of the peoples +beyond the Rhine, the _Kreuzzeitung_: + + "We have already observed that it will not do to be too + optimistic as to Italy's decision; in point of fact, the + situation is very serious. If none but moderate + considerations had ruled Italy's intentions, there is little + doubt as to which path she would choose; but we know the + height which the wave of Germanophobia has attained in that + country, a significant mark of the popular sentiment being + the declaration of the Italian Socialists upon the reasons + of their inability to oppose the war. An equal source of + danger is the fact that the government feels that it no + longer controls the current of public opinion." + +The whole drama of Italian intervention is summed up in these lines, +which explain it better than would the longest and most learned +commentaries. + +The Italian government, restrained by a politic wisdom and prudence, +excessive, perhaps, but very excusable, did not wish for war. To the +utmost limits of patience, until its dignity and its sense of security +could bear no more, it did all that could be done to spare its people +the greatest calamity that can befall a land. It held out until it was +literally submerged and carried away by the flood of Germanophobia of +which the passage which I have quoted speaks. I witnessed the rising +of this flood. When I arrived in Milan, at the end of November, 1914, +to speak a few sentences at a charity-fete organized for the benefit +of the Belgian refugees, the hatred of Germany was already storing +itself up in men's hearts, but had not as yet come to the surface. +Here and there it did break out, but it was still fearful, circumspect +and hesitating. One felt it brewing, seething in the depths of men's +souls, but it seemed as yet to be feeling its way, to be reckoning +itself up, to be painfully attaining self-consciousness. When I +returned to Italy in March, 1915, I was amazed to behold the +unhoped-for height to which the invading flood had so swiftly risen. +That pious hatred, that necessary hatred, which in this case is merely +a magnificent passion for justice and humanity, had swept over +everything. It had come out into the full sunlight; it thrilled and +quivered at the least appeal, proud and happy to assert itself, to +manifest itself with the beautiful tumultuous ostentation of the +South; and it was the "neutrals" that now hid themselves after the +manner of unspeakable insects. That species had all but disappeared, +annihilated by the storm that was gathering on every hand. The Germans +themselves had gone to earth, no one knew where; and from that moment +it was certain that war was imminent and inevitable. + +In the space of three months a stupendous work had been accomplished. +It is impossible for the moment to weigh and determine the part of +each of those who performed it. But we can even now say that in Italy, +which is governed preeminently by public opinion and which, more than +any other nation, has in its blood the traditions and the habits of +the forum and the ancient republics, it is above all the spoken word +that changes men's hearts and urges them to action. + +2 + +From this point of view, the admirable campaign of agitation and +propaganda undertaken by M. Jules Destree, author of _En Italie_, was +of an importance and possessed consequences which are beyond +comparison with anything else accomplished and which are difficult to +realize by those who were not present at one or other of the meetings +at which, for more than six months, indefatigably, travelling from +town to town, from the smallest to the most populous, he uttered the +distressful complaint of martyred Belgium, unveiling the lies, the +felonies, the monstrosities and the acts of devastation perpetrated by +the barbarian horde and making heard, with sovran eloquence, the +august voice of outraged justice and of baffled right. + +I heard him more than once and was able to judge for myself of the +magical effect--the term is by no means too strong--which he produced +on the Italian crowd. It was a magnificent spectacle, which I shall +never forget. I then perceived for the first time in my life the +mysterious, incantatory, supernatural powers of great eloquence. + +He would come forward wearing a languid, dejected and overburdened +air. The crowd, like all crowds awaiting their master, sat thronged at +his feet, silently humming, undecided, unshaped, not yet knowing what +it wanted or intended. He would begin; his voice was low, leisurely, +almost hesitating; he seemed to be painfully searching for his ideas +and expressions, but in reality he was feeling for the sensitive and +magnetic points of the huge and unknown being whose soul he wished to +reach. At the outset it was evident that he did not know exactly what +he was going to say. He swept his words across the assembly as though +they had been antennae. They came back to him charged with sympathy +and strength and precise information. Then his delivery became more +rapid, his body drew itself erect, his stature and his very size +increased. His voice grew fuller; it became tremendous, seductive or +sarcastic, overwhelming like a hurricane all the ideas of his +audience, beating against the walls of the largest buildings, flowing, +through the doors and windows, out into the surging streets, there to +kindle the ardour and hatred which already thrilled the hall. His +face--tawny, brutal, ravaged, furrowed with shade and slashed with +light, powerful and magnificent in its ugliness--became the very mask, +the visible symbol of the furious and generous passions of the crowd. +At moments such as this, he truly merited the name which I heard those +about me murmuring, the name which the Italians gave him in that kind +of helpless fear and delight which men feel in the presence of an +irresistible force: he was "the Terrible Orator." + +But all this power, which seemed so blindly released, was in reality +extremely circumspect, extremely subtle and marvellously disciplined. +The handling of those shy though excited crowds called for the utmost +prudence, as a certain French speaker, whom I will not name, but who +wished to make a like attempt, learnt to his cost. The Italian is +generous, courteous, hospitable, expansive and enthusiastic, but also +proud and susceptible. He does not readily allow another to dictate +his conduct, to reproach him with his shortcomings or to offer him +advice. He is conscious of his own worth; he knows that he is the +eldest son of our civilization and that no one has the right to +patronize him. It is necessary, therefore, beneath the appearance of +the most fiery and unbridled eloquence, to observe perfect +self-mastery, combined with infinite tact and discretion. It is often +essential to divine instantaneously the temper of the crowd, to bow +before the most varied and unexpected circumstances and to profit by +them. I remember, among others, a singularly prickly meeting at +Naples. The Neapolitans are hardly warlike people; but they none the +less felt on this occasion that they must not appear indifferent to +the generous movement which was thrilling the rest of Italy. At the +last moment, we were warned that we might speak of Belgium and her +misfortunes, but that any too pointed allusion to the war, any too +violent attack upon the Teutonic bandits would arouse protests which +might injure our cause. I, being no orator, had only my poor written +speech, which, as I could not alter it, became dangerous. It was +necessary to prepare the ground. Destree mounted the platform and, in +a masterly improvisation, began by establishing a long, patient and +scholarly parallel between Flemish and Italian art, between the great +painters of Florence and Venice and those of Flanders and Brabant; and +thence, by imperceptible degrees, he shifted his ground to the present +distress in Belgium, to the atrocities and infamies committed by her +oppressors, to the whole story, to the whole series of injustices, to +the whole danger of this nameless war. He was applauded; the barriers +were broken down. Anything added to what he had said was superfluous; +but everything was permissible. + + +3 + +For the rest, it must be admitted that a wonderful impulse of pity and +admiration for Belgium sustained the orator and lent his every word a +range and a potency which it could not otherwise have possessed. This +unanimous and spontaneous sympathy assumed at times the most touching +and unexpected forms. All difficulties were smoothed away before us as +by magic; the sternest prohibitions were ingeniously evaded or +benevolently removed. From the towns which we were due to visit the +hotel-keepers telegraphed to us, begging as a favour permission to +give us lodging; and, when the time came to settle our account, it was +impossible to get them to accept the slightest remuneration; and the +whole staff, from the majestic porter to the humblest boot-boy, +heroically refused to be tipped. If we entered a restaurant and were +recognized, the customers would rise, take counsel together and order +a bottle of some famous wine; then one among them would come forward, +requesting, gracefully and respectfully, that we would do them the +honour of drinking with them to the deliverance of our martyred +motherland. At the memory of what that unhappy country had suffered +for the salvation of the world, a sort of discreet and affecting +fervour was visible in the looks of all; it may be said that nowhere +was the heroic sacrifice of Belgium more nobly and more affectionately +admired and understood; and it will be recognized one day, when time +has done its work, that, although other causes induced Italy to take +upon her shoulders the terrible burden of what was not an inevitable +war, the only causes that really, in the depths of her soul, liberated +her resolve were the admiration, the indignation and the heroic pity +inspired by the spectacle, incessantly renewed, of our unmerited +afflictions. You will not find in history a nobler sacrifice nor one +made for a nobler cause. + + * * * * * + + + + +ON REREADING THUCYDIDES + + + + +XIII + +ON REREADING THUCYDIDES + + +1 + +At moments above all when history is in the making, in these times +when great and as yet incomplete pages are being traced, pages by the +side of which all that had already been written will pale, it is a +good and salutary thing to turn to the past in search of instruction, +warning and encouragement. In this respect, the unwearying and +implacable war which Athens kept up against Sparta for twenty-seven +years, with the hegemony of Greece for a stake, presents more than one +analogy with that which we ourselves are waging and teaches lessons +that should make us reflect. The counsels which it gives us are all +the more precious, all the more striking or profound inasmuch as the +war is narrated to us by a man who remains, with Tacitus, despite the +striving of the centuries, the progress of life and all the +opportunities of doing better, the greatest historian that the earth +has ever known. Thucydides is in fact the supreme historian, at the +same time swift and detailed, scrupulously sifting his evidence but +giving free play to intuition, setting forth none but incontestable +facts, yet divining the most secret intentions and embracing at a +glance all the present and future political consequences of the events +which he relates. He is withal one of the most perfect writers, one of +the most admirable artists in the literature of mankind; and from this +point of view, in an entirely different and almost antagonistic world, +he has not an equal save Tacitus. But Tacitus is before everything a +wonderful tragic poet, a painter of foul abysses, of fire and blood, +who can lay bare the souls of monsters and their crimes, whereas +Thucydides is above all a great political moralist, a statesman +endowed with extraordinary perspicacity, a painter of the open air and +of a free state, who portrays the minds of those sane, ingenious, +subtle, generous and marvellously intelligent men who peopled ancient +Greece. The one piles on the gloom with a lavish hand, gathers dark +shadows which he pierces at each sentence with lightning flashes, but +remains sombre and oppressed on the very summits, whereas the other +condenses nothing but light, groups together judgments that are so +many radiant sheaves and remains luminous and breathes freely in the +very depths. The first is passionate, violent, fierce, indignant, +bitter, sincerely but pitilessly unjust and all made up of magnificent +animosities; the second is always even, always at the same high level, +which is that which the noblest endeavour of human reason can attain. +He has no passion but a passion for the public weal, for justice, +glory and intelligence. It is as though all his work were spread out +in the blue sky; and even his famous picture of the plague of Athens +seems covered with sunshine. + + +2 + +But there is no need to follow up this parallel, which is not my +object. I will not dwell any longer--though perhaps I may return to +them one day--upon the lessons which we might derive from that +Peloponnesian War, in which the position of Athens towards Lacedaemon +provides more than one point of comparison with that of France towards +Germany. True, we do not there see, as in our own case, civilized +nations fighting a morally barbarian people: it was a contest between +Greeks and Greeks, displaying however in the same physical race two +different and incompatible spirits. Athens stood for human life in +its happiest development, gracious, cheerful and peaceful. She took no +serious interest except in the happiness, the imponderous riches, the +innocent and perfect beauties, the sweet leisures, the glories and the +arts of peace. When she went to war, it was as though in play, with +the smile still on her face, looking upon it as a more violent +pleasure than the rest, or as a duty joyfully accepted. She bound +herself down to no discipline, she was never ready, she improvised +everything at the last moment, having, as Pericles said, "with habits +not of labour but of ease and courage not of art but of nature, the +double advantage of escaping the experience of hardship in +anticipation and of facing them in the hour of need as fearlessly as +those who are never free from them."[5] + +For Sparta, on the other hand, life was nothing but endless work, an +incessant strain, having no other objective than war. She was gloomy, +austere, strict, morose, almost ascetic, an enemy to everything that +excuses man's presence on this earth, a nation of spoilers, looters, +incendiaries and devastators, a nest of wasps beside a swarm of bees, +a perpetual menace and danger to everything around her, as hard upon +herself as upon others and boasting an ideal which may appear lofty, +if it can be man's ideal to be unhappy and the contented slave of +unrelenting discipline. On the other hand, she differed entirely from +those whom we are now fighting in that she was generally honest, loyal +and upright and showed a certain respect for the gods and their +temples, for treaties and for international law. It is none the less +true that, if she had from the beginning reigned alone or without +encountering a long resistance, Hellas would never have been the +Hellas that we know. She would have left in history but a precarious +trace of useless warlike virtues and of minor combats without glory; +and mankind would not have possessed that centre of light towards +which it turns to this day. + + +3 + +What was to be the issue of this war? Here begins the lesson which it +were well to study thoroughly. It would seem indeed as if, with the +first encounters in that conflict, as in our own, the inexplicable will +that governs nations was favourable to the less civilized; and in fact +Lacedaemon gained the upper hand, at least temporarily and sufficiently +to abuse her victory to such a degree that she soon lost its fruits. +But Athens held the evil will in check for seven-and-twenty years; for +twenty-seven summers and twenty-seven winters, to use Thucydides' +reckoning, she proved to us that it is possible, in defiance of +probability, to fight against what seems written in the book of heaven +and hell. Nay more, at a time when Sparta, whose sole industry, whose +sole training, whose only reason for existence and whose only ideal +was war, was hugging the thought of crushing in a few weeks, under the +weight of her formidable hoplites, a frivolous, careless and +ill-organized city, Athens, notwithstanding the treacherous blow which +fate dealt her by sending a plague that carried off a third of her +civil population and a quarter of her army, Athens for seventeen years +definitely held victory in her grasp. + +During this period, she more than once had Lacedaemon at her mercy and +did not begin to descend the stony path of ruin and defeat until after +the disastrous expedition to Sicily, in which, carried away by her +rhetoricians and bitten with inconceivable folly, she hurled all her +fleet, all her soldiers and all her wealth into a remote, +unprofitable, unknown and desperate adventure. She resisted the +decline of her fortunes for yet another ten years, heaping up her sins +against wisdom and simple common sense and with her own hands drawing +tighter the knot that was to strangle her, as though to show us that +destiny is for the most part but our own madness and that what we call +unavoidable fatality has its root only in mistakes that might easily +be avoided. + + +4 + +To point this moral was again not my real object. In these days when +we have so many sorrows to assuage and so many deaths to honour, I +wished merely to recall a page written over two thousand years ago, to +the glory of the Athenian heroes who fell for their country in the +first battles of that war. According to the custom of the Greeks, the +bones of the dead that had been burnt on the battlefield were +solemnly brought back to Athens at the end of the year; and the people +chose the greatest speaker in the city to deliver the funeral oration. +This honour fell to Pericles, son of Xanthippus, the Pericles of the +golden age of human beauty. After pronouncing a well-merited and +magnificent eulogium on the Athenian nation and institutions, he +concluded with the following words: + + "Indeed, if I have dwelt at some length upon the character + of our country, it has been to show that our stake in the + struggle is not the same as theirs who have no such blessing + to lose and also that the panegyric of the men over whom I + am now speaking might be by definite proofs established. + That panegyric is now in a great measure complete; for the + Athens that I have celebrated is only what the heroism of + these and their like have made her, men whose fame, unlike + that of most Hellenes, will be found to be only commensurate + with their deserts. And, if a test of worth be wanted, it is + to be found in their closing scene; and this not only in the + cases in which it set the final seal upon their merit, but + also in those in which it gave the first intimation of their + having any. For there is justice in the claim that + steadfastness in his country's battles should be as a cloak + to cover a man's other imperfections, since the good action + has blotted out the bad and his merit as a citizen more than + outweighed his demerits as an individual. But none of these + allowed either wealth with its prospect of future enjoyment + to unnerve his spirit, or poverty with its hope of a day of + freedom and riches to tempt him to shrink from danger. No, + holding that vengeance upon their enemies was more to be + desired than any personal blessings and reckoning this to be + the most glorious of hazards, they joyfully determined to + accept the risk, to make sure of their vengeance and to let + their wishes wait; and, while committing to hope the + uncertainty of final success, in the business before them + they thought fit to act boldly and trust in themselves. Thus + choosing to die resisting rather than to live submitting, + they fled only from dishonour, but met danger face to face + and, after one brief moment, while at the summit of their + fortune, escaped not from their fear but from their glory. + + "So died these men as became Athenians. You, their + survivors, must determine to have as unfaltering a + resolution in the field, though you may pray that it may + have a happier issue. And, not contented with ideas derived + only from words of the advantages which are bound up with + the defence of your country, though these would furnish a + valuable text to a speaker even before an audience so alive + to them as the present, you must yourselves realize the + power of Athens and feed your eyes upon her from day to day, + till love of her fills your hearts; and then, when all her + greatness shall break upon you, you must reflect that it was + by courage, sense of duty and a keen feeling of honour in + action that men were enabled to win all this and that no + personal failure in an enterprise could make them consent to + deprive their country of their valour, but they laid it at + her feet as the most glorious contribution that they could + offer. For by this offering of their lives made in common by + them all they each of them individually received that renown + which never grows old and, for a sepulchre, not so much that + in which their bones have been deposited, but that noblest + of shrines wherein their glory is laid up to be eternally + remembered upon every occasion on which deed or story shall + call for its commemoration. For heroes have the whole earth + for their tomb; and in lands far from their own, where the + column with its epitaph declares it, there is enshrined in + every breast a record unwritten with no tablet to preserve + it, except that of the heart. These take as your model and, + judging happiness to be the fruit of freedom and freedom of + valour, never decline the dangers of war. For it is not the + miserable that would most justly be unsparing of their + lives: these have nothing to hope for; it is rather they to + whom continued life may bring reverses as yet unknown and to + whom a fall, if it came, would be most tremendous in its + consequences. And surely, to a man of spirit, the + degradation of cowardice must be immeasurably more grievous + than the unfelt death which strikes him in the midst of his + strength and patriotism! + + "Comfort, therefore, not condolence, is what I have to offer + to the parents of the dead who may be here. Numberless are + the chances to which, as they know, the life of man is + subject; but fortunate indeed are they who draw for their + lot a death so glorious as that which has caused your + mourning and to whom life has been so exactly measured as to + terminate in the happiness in which it has been passed. + Still I know that this is a hard saying, especially when + those are in question of whom you will be constantly + reminded by seeing in the homes of others blessings of which + once you also boasted; for grief is felt not so much for the + want of what we have never known as for the loss of that to + which we have been long accustomed. Yet you who are still of + an age to beget children must bear up in the hope of having + others in their stead: not only will they help you to forget + those whom you have lost, but they will be to the state at + once a reinforcement and a security; for never can a fair or + just policy be expected of the citizen who does not, like + his fellows, bring to the decision the interests and + apprehensions of a father. While those of you who have + passed your prime must congratulate yourselves with the + thought that the best part of your life was fortunate and + that the brief span that remains will be cheered by the fame + of the departed. For it is only the love of honour that + never grows old; and honour it is, not gain, as some would + have it, that rejoices the heart of age and helplessness. + + "And, now that you have brought to a close your lamentations + for your relatives, you may depart." + +These words spoken twenty-three centuries ago ring in our hearts as +though they were uttered yesterday. They celebrate our dead better +than could any eloquence of ours, however poignant it might be. Let us +bow before their paramount beauty and before the great people that +could applaud and understand. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 5: This and the later passage from Pericles' funeral oration +I have quoted from the late Richard Crawley's admirable translation of +Thucydides' _Peloponnesian War_, now published in the _Temple +Classics_.--A. T. de M.] + + * * * * * + + + + +THE DEAD DO NOT DIE + + + + +XIV + +THE DEAD DO NOT DIE + + +1 + +When we behold the terrible loss of so many young lives, when we see +so many incarnations of physical and moral vigour, of intellect and of +glorious promise pitilessly cut off in their first flower, we are on +the verge of despair. Never before have the fairest energies and +aspirations of men been flung recklessly and incessantly into an abyss +whence comes no sound or answer. Never since it came into existence +has humanity squandered its treasure, its substance and its prospects +so lavishly. For more than twelve months, on every battlefield, where +the bravest, the truest, the most ardent and self-sacrificing are +necessarily the first to die and where the less courageous, the less +generous, the weak, the ailing, in a word the less desirable, alone +possess some chance of escaping the carnage, for over twelve months a +sort of monstrous inverse selection has been in operation, one which +seems to be deliberately seeking the downfall of the human race. And +we wonder uneasily what the state of the world will be after the great +trial and what will be left of it and what will be the future of this +stunted race, shorn of all the best and noblest part of it. + +The problem is certainly one of the darkest that have ever vexed the +minds of men. It contains a material truth before which we remain +defenceless; and, if we accept it as it stands, we can discover no +remedy for the evil that threatens us. But material and tangible +truths are never anything but a more or less salient angle of greater +and deeper-lying truths. And, on the other hand, mankind appears to be +such a necessary and indestructible force of nature that it has +always, hitherto, not only survived the most desperate ordeals, but +succeeded in benefiting by them and emerging greater and stronger than +before. + + +2 + +We know that peace is better than war; it were madness to compare the +two. We know that, if this cataclysm let loose by an act of +unutterable folly had not come upon the world, mankind would doubtless +have reached ere long a zenith of wonderful achievement whose +manifestations it is impossible to foreshadow. We know that, if a +third or a fourth part of the fabulous sums expended on extermination +and destruction had been devoted to works of peace, all the iniquities +that poison the air we breathe would have been triumphantly redressed +and that the social question, the one great question, that matter of +life and death which justice demands that posterity should face, +would have found its definite solution, once and for all, in a +happiness which now perhaps even our sons and grandsons will not +realize. We know that the disappearance of two or three million young +existences, cut down when they were on the point of bearing fruit, +will leave in history a void that will not be easily filled, even as +we know that among those dead were mighty intellects, treasures of +genius which will not come back again and which contained inventions +and discoveries that will now perhaps be lost to us for centuries. We +know that we shall never grasp the consequences of this thrusting back +of progress and of this unprecedented devastation. But, granting all +this, it is a good thing to recover our balance and stand upon our +feet. There is no irreparable loss. Everything is transformed, nothing +perishes and that which seems to be hurled into destruction is not +destroyed at all. Our moral world, even as our physical world, is a +vast but hermetically sealed sphere, whence naught can issue, whence +naught can fall, to be dissolved in space. All that exists, all that +comes into being upon this earth remains there and bears fruit; and +the most appalling wastage is but material or spiritual riches flung +away for an instant, to fall to the ground again in a new form. There +is no escape or leakage, no filtering through cracks, no missing the +mark, not even waste or neglect. All this heroism poured out on every +side does not leave our planet; and the reason why the courage of our +fighters seems so general and yet so extraordinary is that all the +might of the dead has passed into the survivors. All those forces of +wisdom, patience, honour and self-sacrifice which increase day by day +and which we ourselves, who are far from the field of danger, feel +rising within us without knowing whence they come are nothing but the +souls of the heroes gathered and absorbed by our own souls. + + +3 + +It is well at times to contemplate invisible things as though we saw +them with our eyes. This was the aim of all the great religions, when +they represented under forms appropriate to the civilization of their +day, the latent, deep, instinctive, general and essential truths which +are the guiding principles of mankind. All have felt and recognized +that loftiest of all truths, the communion of the living and the dead, +and have given it various names designating the same mysterious +verity: the Christians know it as revival of merit, the Buddhists as +reincarnation, or transmigration of souls, and the Japanese as +Shintoism, or ancestor-worship. The last are more fully convinced than +any other nation that the dead do not cease to live and that they +direct all our actions, are exalted by our virtues and become gods. + +Lafcadio Hearn, the writer who has most closely studied and understood +that wonderful ancestor-worship, says: + + "One of the surprises of our future will certainly be a + return to beliefs and ideas long ago abandoned upon the mere + assumption that they contained no truth--beliefs still + called barbarous, pagan, mediaeval, by those who condemn them + out of traditional habit. Year after year the researches of + science afford us new proof that the savage, the barbarian, + the idolater, the monk, each and all have arrived, by + different paths, as near to some point of eternal truth as + any thinker of the nineteenth century. We are now learning + also, that the theories of the astrologers and of the + alchemists were but partially, not totally, wrong. We have + reason even to suppose that no dream of the invisible world + has ever been dreamed, that no hypothesis of the unseen has + ever been imagined--which future science will not prove to + have contained some germ of reality."[6] + +There are many things which might be added to these lines, notably all +that the most recent of our sciences, metapsychics, is engaged in +discovering with regard to the miraculous faculties of our +subconsciousness. + +But, to return more directly to what we were saying, was it not +observed that, after the great battles of the Napoleonic era, the +birth-rate increased in an extraordinary manner, as though the lives +suddenly cut short in their prime were not really dead and were eager +to be back again in our midst and complete their career? If we could +follow with our eyes all that is happening in the spiritual world that +rises above us on every side, we should no doubt see that it is the +same with the moral force that seems to be lost on the field of +slaughter. It knows where to go, it knows its goal, it does not +hesitate. All that our wonderful dead relinquish they bequeath to us; +and when they die for us, they leave us their lives not in any +strained metaphorical sense, but in a very real and direct way. Virtue +goes out of every man who falls while performing a deed of glory; and +that virtue drops down upon us; and nothing of him is lost and nothing +evaporates in the shock of a premature end. He gives us in one +solitary and mighty stroke what he would have given us in a long life +of duty and love. Death does not injure life; it is powerless against +it. Life's aggregate never changes. What death takes from those who +fall enters into those who are left standing. The number of lamps +grows less, but the flame rises higher. Death is in no wise the gainer +so long as there are living men. The more it exercises its ravages, +the more it increases the intensity of that which it cannot touch; the +more it pursues its phantom victories, the better does it prove to us +that man will end by conquering death. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 6: _Kokoro: Hints and Echoes of Japanese Life_, chapter +xiv., "Some thoughts about Ancestor-Worship."] + + * * * * * + + + + +IN MEMORIAM + + + + +XV + +IN MEMORIAM + + +1 + +Those who die for their country should not be numbered with the dead. +We must call them by another name. They have nothing in common with +those who end in their beds a life that is worn out, a life almost +always too long and often useless. Death, which every elsewhere is but +the object of fear and horror, bringing naught but nothingness and +despair, this death, on the field of battle, in the clash of glory, +becomes more gracious than birth and exhales a beauty greater than +that of love. No life will ever give what their youth is offering us, +that youth which gives in one moment the days and the years that lay +before it. There is no sacrifice to be compared with that which they +have made; for which reason there is no glory that can soar so high +as theirs, no gratitude that can surpass the gratitude which we owe +them. They have not only a right to the foremost place in our +memories: they have a right to all our memories and to everything that +we are, since we exist only through them. + + +2 + +And now it is in us that their life, so suddenly cut short, must +resume its course. Whatever be our faith and whatever the God whom it +adores, one thing is almost certain and, in spite of all appearances, +is daily becoming more certain: it is that death and life are +commingled; the dead and the living alike are but moments, hardly +dissimilar, of a single and infinite existence and members of one +immortal family. They are not beneath the earth, in the depths of +their tombs; they lie deep in our hearts, where all that they once +were will continue to live to to act; and they live in us even as we +die in them. They see us, they understand us more nearly than when +they were in our arms; let us then keep a watch upon ourselves, so +that they witness no actions and hear no words but words and actions +that shall be worthy of them. + + * * * * * + + + + +SUPERNATURAL COMMUNICATIONS IN WAR-TIME + + + + +XVI + +SUPERNATURAL COMMUNICATIONS IN WAR-TIME + + +1 + +In a volume entitled _The Unknown Guest_, published not long ago, +among other essays I devoted one in particular[7] to certain phenomena +of intuition, clairvoyance or clairaudience, vision at great distance +and even vision of the future. These phenomena were grouped together +under the somewhat unsuitable and none too well-constructed title of +"psychometry," which, to borrow Dr. Maxwell's excellent definition, is +"the faculty possessed by certain persons of placing themselves in +relation, either spontaneously or, for the most part, through the +intermediary of some object, with unknown and often very distant +things and people." + +The existence of this faculty is no longer seriously denied by any one +who has given some little attention to metapsychics; and it is easily +verified by those who will take the necessary trouble, for its +possessors, though few in number, are not inaccessible. It has been +the subject of many experiments and of a few treatises, among which I +will name one by M. Duchatel, _Enquete sur des cas de psychometrie_, +and Dr. Osty's recent book, _Lucidite et intuition_, which is the most +complete and searching work that we have had upon this question until +now. + +Psychometry is one of the most curious faculties of our +subconsciousness and doubtless contains the clue to many of those +manifestations which appear to proceed from another world. Let us see, +with the aid of a living example, how it is employed. + +One of the best mediums of this class is a lady to whom I referred in +_The Unknown Guest_ as Mme. M. Her visitor gives her an object of some +kind that has belonged to or been touched or handled by the person +about whom he proposes to question her. Mme. M. operates in a state of +trance; but there are other celebrated psychometers who retain all +their normal consciousness, so that the hypnotic or somnambulistic +state is not, generally speaking, by any means indispensable when we +wish to arouse this extraordinary clairvoyance. + +After placing the object, usually a letter, in the medium's hands, you +say to her: + +"I wish you to put yourself in communication with the writer of this +letter," or "the owner of this article," as the case may be. + +Forthwith the medium not only perceives the person in question, his +physical appearance, his character, his habits, his interests, his +state of health, but also, in a series of swift and changing visions +that follow one another like the pictures of a cinematograph, sees and +describes exactly that person's environment, the surrounding country, +the rooms in which he lives, the people who live with him and who wish +him well or ill, the mentality and the most secret and unexpected +intentions of all the various characters that figure in his existence. +If by means of your questions you direct her towards the past, she +traces the whole course of the subject's history. If you turn her +towards the future, she seems often to discover it as clearly as the +past. + +But here we must make certain reservations. We are entering upon +forbidden tracts; errors are almost the rule and proper supervision is +all but impossible. It is better therefore not to venture into those +dangerous regions. Pending fuller investigation of the question, we +may say that the foretelling of the future, when it claims to cover a +definite space of time, is nearly always illusory. There is scarcely +any accuracy of vision, except when the events concerned are very near +at hand, already developing or actually being consummated; and it then +becomes difficult to distinguish it from presentiments, which in their +turn are rarely true except where the immediate future is concerned. +To sum up, in the present state of our experience, we observe that +what the psychometers and clairvoyants foretell us possesses a certain +value and some chance of proving correct only in so far as they put +into words our own forebodings, forebodings which again may be quite +unknown to us and which they discover deep down in our subconsciousness. +They confine themselves--I speak of the genuine mediums--to bringing +to light and revealing to us our unconscious and personal intuition +of an event that is hanging over us. But, when they venture to predict +a general event, such as the result of a war, an epidemic, an +earthquake, which does not interest ourselves exclusively or which is +too remote to come within the somewhat limited scope of our intuition, +they almost invariably deceive themselves and us. + +It is very difficult to fathom the nature of this intuition. Does it +relate to events partly or wholly realized, but still in a latent +state and perceived before the knowledge of them reaches us through +the normal channels of the mind or brain? Does our ever-watchful +instinct of self-preservation notice causes or traces which escape our +ever-inattentive and slumbering reason? Are we to believe in a sort of +autosuggestion that induces us to realize things which we have been +foretold or of which we have had presentiments? This is not the place +to examine so complex a problem, which brings us into contact with +all the mysteries of subconsciousness and the preexistence of the +future. + +There remains another point to which it is well to draw attention in +order to avoid misunderstanding and disappointment. Experience shows +us that the medium perceives the person in question quite clearly, in +his present and usual state, but not necessarily in the exact +accidental state of the moment. She will tell you, for instance, that +she sees him ailing slightly, lying in a deck-chair in a garden of +such and such a kind, surrounded by certain flowers and petting a dog +of a certain size and breed. On enquiring, you will find that all +these details are strictly correct, with one exception, that at that +precise moment this person, who ordinarily spends his time in the +garden, was inside his house or calling on a neighbour. Mistakes in +time therefore are comparatively frequent and simultaneity between +action and vision comparatively rare. In short, the habitual often +masks the accidental action. This, I insist, is a point of which we +must not lose sight, lest we ask of psychometry more than it is +obviously able to give us. + + +2 + +Having said so much, is it open to us, amid all the mental anguish and +suffering which this terrible war has engendered, without profaning +the sorrow of our fellow-men and women, to give to those who are in +mortal fear as to the fate of some one whom they love the hope of +finding, among those extrahuman phenomena which have been unjustly and +falsely disparaged, a consoling gleam of light that shall not be a +mere mockery or delusion? I venture to declare--and I am doing so not +thoughtlessly, but after studying the problem with the conscientious +attention which it demands and after personally making a number of +experiments or causing them to be made under my supervision--I venture +to declare, without for a moment losing sight of the respect due to +grief, that we possess here, in these indisputable cases where no +normal mode of communication is possible, a strange but real and +serious source of information and comfort. I could mention a large +number of tests that have been made, so to speak, before my eyes by +absolutely trustworthy relatives or friends. + +As my space is limited, I will relate only one, which typifies and +summarizes all the others very fairly. A mother had three sons at the +front. She was hearing pretty regularly from the eldest and the +second; but for some weeks the youngest, who was in the Belgian +trenches, where the fighting was very fierce, had given no sign of +life. Wild with anxiety, she was already mourning him as dead when +her friends advised her to consult Mme. M. The medium consoled her +with the first words that she spoke and told her that she saw her son +wounded, but in no danger whatever, that he was in a sort of shed +fitted up as a hospital, that he was being very well looked after by +people who spoke a different language, that for the time being he was +unable to write, which was a great worry to him, but that she would +receive a letter from him in a few days. The mother did, in fact, +receive a card from this son a few days later, worded a little stiffly +and curtly and written in an unnatural hand, telling her that all was +well and that he was in good health. Greatly relieved, she dismissed +the matter from her mind, merely said to herself that of course the +medium, like all mediums, had been wrong and thought no more of it. +But two or three messages following on the first, all couched in +short, stilted phrases that seemed to be hiding something, ended by +alarming her so much that she was unable to bear the strain any longer +and entreated her son to tell her the whole truth, whatever it might +be. He then admitted that he had been wounded, though not seriously, +adding that he was in a sort of shed fitted up as a hospital, where he +was being capitally looked after by English doctors and nurses, in +short, just as the medium had seen him. + +I repeat, mediumistic experience can show other instances of this +kind. If it stood alone, it would be valueless, for it might well be +explained by mere coincidence. But it forms part of a very normal +series; and I could easily enumerate many others within my own +knowledge. This, however, would merely mean repeating, with +uninteresting variations, the essential features of the present case, +a proceeding for which there would be no excuse save in a technical +work. + +Is success then practically certain? Yes, rash and surprising though +the statement may seem, mistakes upon the whole are very rare, +provided that the medium be carefully chosen and that the object +serving as an intermediary have not passed through too many hands, for +it will contain and reveal as many distinct personalities as it has +undergone contacts. It will be necessary, therefore, first to +eliminate all these accessory personalities, so as to fix the medium's +attention solely on the subject of the consultation. On the other +hand, we must beware of calling for details which the nature of the +medium's vision does not allow her to give us. If asked, for instance, +about a soldier who is a prisoner in Germany, she will see the soldier +in question very plainly, will perceive his state of health and mind, +the manner in which he is treated, his companions, the fortress or +group of huts in which he is interned, the appearance of the camp, of +the town, of the surrounding district; but she will very seldom indeed +be able to mention the name of the camp, town or district. In fact, +she can describe only what she sees; and, unless the town or camp have +a board bearing its name, there will be nothing to enable her to +identify it with sufficient accuracy. Let us add, lastly, that, with +mediums in a state of trance, who are not conscious of what they are +saying, we are exposed to terrible shocks. If they see death, they +announce the fact bluntly, without suspecting that they are in the +presence of a horror-stricken mother, wife or sister, so much so that, +in the case of Mme. M. particularly, it has been found necessary to +take certain precautions to obviate any such shock. + + +3 + +Now what is the nature of this strange and incredible faculty? In the +book which I mentioned at the beginning of this article, I tried to +examine the different theories that suggested themselves. The +argument, unfortunately, is infinitely too long to be republished +here, even if I were to compress it ruthlessly. I will give merely a +brief summary of the conclusions, or rather of the attempted +conclusions, for the mystery, like most of the world's mysteries, is +probably unfathomable. After dismissing the spiritualistic theory, +which implies the intervention of the dead or of discarnate entities +and is not as ridiculous as the profane would think, but which nothing +hitherto has adequately confirmed, we may reasonably ask ourselves +first of all whether this faculty exists in us or in the medium. Does +it simply decipher, as is probably the case where the future is +concerned, the latent ideas, knowledge and certainties which we bear +within us, or does it alone, of its own initiative and independently +of us, perceive what it reveals to us? Experience seems to show that +we must adopt the latter hypothesis, for the vision appears just as +distinctly when the illuminating object is brought by a third person +who knows nothing and has never heard of the individual to whom the +object once belonged. It seems therefore almost certain that the +strange virtue is contained solely in the object itself, which is +somehow galvanized by a complementary virtue in the medium. This being +so, we must presume that the object, having absorbed like a sponge a +portion of the spirit of the person who touched it, remains in +constant communication with him, or, more probably, that it serves to +track out, among the prodigious throng of human beings, the one who +impregnated it with his fluid, even as the dogs employed by the +police--at least so we are told--when given an article of clothing to +smell, are able to distinguish, among innumerable cross-trails, that +of the man who used to wear the garment in question. It seems more and +more certain that, as cells of one vast organism, we are connected +with everything that exists by an infinitely intricate network of +waves, vibrations, influences, currents and fluids, all nameless, +numberless and unbroken. Nearly always, in nearly all men, everything +transmitted by these invisible threads falls into the depths of the +subconsciousness and passes unperceived, which is not the same as +saying that it remains inactive. But sometimes an exceptional +circumstance, such as, in the present case, the marvellous sensibility +of a first-rate medium, suddenly reveals to us the existence of the +infinite living network by the vibrations and the undeniable operation +of one of its threads. + +All this, I agree, sounds incredible, but really it is hardly any more +so than the wonders of radioactivity, of the Hertzian waves, of +photography, electricity or hypnotism, or of generation, which +condenses into a single particle all the physical, moral and +intellectual past and future of thousands of creatures. Our life would +be reduced to something very small indeed if we deliberately dismissed +from it all that our understanding is unable to embrace. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 7: Chap. ii.: "Psychometry."] + + * * * * * + + + + +EDITH CAVELL + + + + +XVII + +EDITH CAVELL[8] + + +1 + +To-day, in honouring the memory of Miss Edith Cavell, we honour not +only the heroine who fell in the midst of her labours of love and +piety, we honour also those, wherever they may be, who have +accomplished or will yet accomplish the same sacrifice and who are +ready, in like circumstances, to face a like death. + +We are told by Thucydides that the Athenians of the age of +Pericles--who, to the honour of humanity be it said, had nothing in +common with the Athenians of to-day--were accustomed, each winter +during their great war, to celebrate at the cost of the State the +obsequies of those who had perished in the recent campaign. The bones +of the dead, arranged according to their tribes, were exhibited under +a tent and honoured for three days. In the midst of this host of the +known dead stood an empty bed, covered with tapestry and dedicated to +"the Invisible," that is, to those whose bodies it had been impossible +to recover. Let us too, before all else, in the quiet of this hall, +where none but almost religious words may be heard, raise in our midst +such an altar, a sacred and mysterious altar, to the invisible +heroines of this war, that is to say, to all those who have died an +obscure death and have left no traces and also to those who are yet +living, whose sacrifices and sufferings will never be told. Here, with +the eyes of the spirit, let us gaze upon all the heroic deeds of which +we know; but let us reserve an honoured place for those, incomparably +more numerous and perhaps more beautiful, of which we as yet know +nothing and, above all, for those of which we shall never know, for +glory has its injustices even as death has its fatalities. + + +2 + +Yet it is hardly probable that among these sacrifices we shall discern +any more admirable than that of Miss Edith Cavell. I need not recall +the circumstances of her death, for they are well-known to everybody +and will never be forgotten. Destiny left nothing undone for the +purest glory to emerge from the deepest shadow. In the depths of that +shadow it concentrated all imaginable hatred, horror, villainy, +cowardice and infamy, so that all pity, all innocent courage and +mercy, all well-doing and all sweet charity might shine forth above +it, as though to show us how low men may sink and how high a woman can +rise, as though its express and visible intention had been to trace, +with a single gesture, amid all the sorrows and the rare beauties of +this war, an outstanding and incomparable example which should at the +same time be an immortal and consoling symbol. + + +3 + +And one would say that destiny had taken pains to make this symbol as +truthful and as general as possible. It did not select a dazzling and +warlike heroine, as it would have done in the days of old: a Judith, a +Lucretia, nor even a Joan of Arc. There was no need of resounding +words, of splendid raiment, of tragic attitudes and accessories, of an +imposing background. The beauty which we find so touching has grown +simpler; it makes less stir and wins closer to our heart. And this is +why destiny sought out in obscurity a little hospital nurse, one of +many thousands of others. The sight of her unpretentious portrait does +not tell one whether she was rich or poor, a humble member of the +middle classes or a great lady. She would pass unnoticed anywhere +until the hour of trial, when glory recognizes its elect; and it seems +as though goodness had almost eliminated the individual contours of +her face, so that it might the more closely resemble the pensive and +sad smiling faces of all the good women in the world. + +Beneath those features one might indeed have read the hidden devotion +and quiet heroism of all the women who do their duty, that is, of +those whom we see about us day by day, working, hoping, keeping vigil, +solacing and succouring others, wearing themselves out without +complaint, suffering in secret and mourning their dead in silence. + + +4 + +She passed like a flash of light which for one moment illumined that +vast and innumerable multitude, confirming our confidence and our +admiration. She has added a final beauty to the great revelations of +this war; for the war, which has taught us many things that will never +fade from our memory, has above all revealed us to ourselves. In the +first days of the terrible ordeal, we did not know for certain how men +and women would comport themselves. In vain did we interrogate the +past, hoping thereby to learn something of the future. There was no +past that would serve for a comparison. Our eyes were drawn back to +the present; and we closed them, full of uneasiness. In what condition +should we find ourselves facing duty, sacrifice, suffering and death, +after so many years of peace, well-being and pleasure, of heedlessness +and moral indifference? What had been the vast and invisible journey +of the human conscience and of those secret forces which are the +whole of man, during this long respite, when they had never been +called upon to confront fate? Were they asleep, were they weakened or +lost, would they respond to the call of destiny, or had they sunk so +deep that they would never recover the energy to ascend to the surface +of life? There was a moment of anguish and silence; and lo, suddenly, +in the midst of this anguish and silence, the most splendid response, +the most magnificent cry of resurrection, of righteousness, of heroism +and sacrifice that the earth has ever heard since it began to roll +along the paths of space and time! They were still there, the ideal +forces! They were mounting upward, on every side, from the depths of +all those swiftly-assembling souls, not merely intact but more than +ever radiant, more than ever pure, more numerous and mightier than +ever! To the amazement of all of us, who possessed them without +knowing it, they had increased in strength and stature while +apparently neglected and forgotten. + +To-day there is no longer any doubt. We may expect all things and hope +all things from the men and the women who have surmounted this long +and grievous trial. If the heroism displayed by man on the battlefield +has never been comparable with that which is being lavished at this +moment, we may also say of the women that their heroism is even more +beyond comparison. We knew that a certain number of men were capable +of giving their lives for their country, for their faith or for a +generous ideal; but we did not realize that all would wrestle with +death for endless months, in great unanimous masses; and above all we +did not imagine, or perhaps we had to some extent forgotten, since the +days of the great martyrs, that woman was ready with the same gift of +self, the same patience, the same sacrifices, the same greatness of +soul and was about--less perhaps in blood than in tears, for it is +always on her that sorrow ends by falling--to prove herself the rival +and the peer of man. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 8: Delivered in Paris, at the Trocadero, 18 December, 1915.] + + * * * * * + + + + +THE LIFE OF THE DEAD + + + + +XVIII + +THE LIFE OF THE DEAD + + +1 + +The other day I went to see a woman whom I knew before the war--she +was happy then--and who had lost her only son in one of the battles in +the Argonne. She was a widow, almost a poor woman; and, now that this +son, her pride and her joy, was no more, she no longer had any reason +for living. I hesitated to knock at her door. Was I not about to +witness one of those hopeless griefs at whose feet all words fall to +the ground like shameful and insulting lies? Which of us to-day is not +familiar with these mournful interviews, this dismal duty? + +To my great astonishment, she offered me her hand with a kindly smile. +Her eyes, to which I hardly dared raise my own, were free of tears. + +"You have come to speak to me of him," she said, in a cheerful tone; +and it was as though her voice had grown younger. + +"Alas, yes! I had heard of your sorrow; and I have come...." + +"Yes, I too believed that my unhappiness was irreparable; but now I +know that he is not dead." + +"What! He is not dead? Do you mean that the news...? But I thought +that the body...." + +"Yes, his body is down there; and I have even a photograph of his +grave. Let me show it to you. See, that cross on the left, the fourth +cross: that is where they have laid him. One of his friends, who +buried him, sent me this card, with all the details. He did not suffer +any pain. There was not even a death-struggle. And he has told me so +himself. He is quite astonished that death should be so easy, so +slight a thing.... You do not understand? Yes, I see what it is: you +are just as I used to be, as all the others are. I do not explain the +matter to the others; what would be the use? They do not wish to +understand. But you, you will understand. He is more alive than he +ever was; he is free and happy. He does just as he likes. He tells me +that one cannot imagine what a release death is, what a weight it +removes from you, nor the joy which it brings. He comes to see me when +I call him. He loves especially to come in the evening; and we chat as +we used to do. He has not altered; he is just as he was on the day +when he went away, only younger, stronger, handsomer. We have never +been happier, or more united, or nearer to one another. He divines my +thoughts before I utter them. He knows everything; he sees everything; +but he cannot tell me everything he knows. He says that I must be +wanting to follow him and that I must wait for my hour. And, while I +wait, we are living in happiness greater than that which was ours +before the war, a happiness which nothing can ever trouble again...." + +Those about her pitied the poor woman; and, as she did not weep, as +she was gay and smiling, they believed her mad. + + +2 + +Was she as mad as they thought? At the present moment, the great +questions of the world beyond the grave are pressing upon us from +every side. It is probable that, since the world began, there have +never been so many dead as now. The empire of death was never so +mighty, so terrible; it is for us to defend and enlarge the empire of +life. In the presence of this mother, which are right or wrong, those +who are convinced that their dead are forever swept out of existence, +or those who are persuaded that their dead do not cease to live, who +believe that they see them and hear them? Do we know what it is that +dies in our dead, or even if anything dies? Whatever our religious +faith may be, there is at any rate one place where they cannot die. +That place is within ourselves; and, if this unhappy mother went +beyond the truth, she was yet nearer to it than those despairing ones +who nourish the mournful certainty that nothing survives of those whom +they loved. She felt too keenly what we do not feel keenly enough. She +remembered too much; and we do not know how to remember. Between the +two errors there is room for a great truth; and, if we have to choose, +hers is the error towards which we should lean. Let us learn to +acquire through reason that which a wise madness bestowed on her. Let +us learn from her to live with our dead and to live with them without +sadness and without terror. They do not ask for tears, but for a happy +and confident affection. Let us learn from her to resuscitate those +whom we regret. She called to hers, while we repulse ours; we are +afraid of them and are surprised that they lose heart and pale and +fade away and leave us forever. They need love as much as do the +living. They die, not at the moment when they sink into the grave, but +gradually as they sink into oblivion; and it is oblivion alone that +makes the separation irrevocable. We should not allow it to heap +itself above them. It would be enough to vouchsafe them each day a +single one of those thoughts which we bestow uncounted upon so many +useless objects: they would no longer think of leaving us; they would +remain around us and we should no longer understand what a tomb is; +for there is no tomb, however deep, whose stone may not be raised and +whose dust dispersed by a thought. + +There would be no difference between the living and the dead if we but +knew how to remember. There would be no more dead. The best of what +they were dwells with us after fate has taken them from us; all their +past is ours; and it is wider than the present, more certain than the +future. Material presence is not everything in this world; and we can +dispense with it and yet not despair. We do not mourn those who live +in lands which we shall never visit, because we know that it depends +on us whether we go to find them. Let it be the same with our dead. +Instead of believing that they have disappeared never to return, tell +yourselves that they are in a country to which you yourself will +assuredly go soon; a country not so very far away. And, while waiting +for the time when you will go there once and for all, you may visit +them in thought as easily as if they were still in a region inhabited +by the living. The memory of the dead is even more alive than that of +the living; it is as though they were assisting our memory, as though +they, on their side, were making a mysterious effort to join hands +with us on ours. One feels that they are far more powerful than the +absent who continue to breathe as we do. + + +3 + +Try then to recall those whom you have lost, before it is too late, +before they have gone too far; and you will see that they will come +much closer to your heart, that they will belong to you more truly, +that they are as real as when they were in the flesh. In putting off +this last, they have but discarded the moments in which they loved us +least or in which we did not love at all. Now they are pure; they are +clothed only in the fairest hours of life; they no longer possess +faults, littlenesses, oddities; they can no longer fall away, or +deceive themselves, or give us pain. They care for nothing now but to +smile upon us, to encompass us with love, to bring us a happiness +drawn without stint from a past which they live again beside us. + + * * * * * + + + + +THE WAR AND THE PROPHETS + + + + +XIX + +THE WAR AND THE PROPHETS + + +At the end of an essay occurring in _The Unknown Guest_ and entitled, +_The Knowledge of the Future_, in which I examined a certain number of +phenomena relating to the anticipatory perception of events, such as +presentiments, premonitions, precognitions, predictions, etc., I +concluded in nearly the following terms: + + "To sum up, if it is difficult for us to conceive that the + future preexists, perhaps it is just as difficult for us to + understand that it does not exist; moreover, many facts tend + to prove that it is as real and definite and has, both in + time and eternity, the same permanence and the same + vividness as the past. Now, from the moment that it + preexists, it is not surprising that we should be able to + know it; it is even astonishing, granted that it overhangs + us from every side, that we should not discover it oftener + and more easily." + +Above all is it astonishing and almost inconceivable that this +universal war, the most stupendous catastrophe that has overwhelmed +humanity since the origin of things, should not, while it was +approaching, bearing in its womb innumerable woes which were about to +affect almost every one of us, have thrown upon us more plainly, from +the recesses of those days in which it was making ready, its menacing +shadow. One would think that it ought to have overcast the whole +horizon of the future, even as it will overcast the whole horizon of +the past. A secret of such weight, suspended in time, ought surely to +have weighed upon all our lives; and presentiments or revelations +should have arisen on every hand. There was none of these. We lived +and moved without uneasiness beneath the disaster which, from year to +year, from day to day, from hour to hour, was descending upon the +world; and we perceived it only when it touched our heads. True, it +was more or less foreseen by our reason; but our reason hardly +believed in it; and besides I am not for the moment speaking of the +inductions of the understanding, which are always uncertain and which +are resigned beforehand to the capricious contradictions which they +are accustomed daily to receive from facts. + + +2 + +But I repeat, beside or above these inductions of our everyday logic, +in the less familiar domain of supernatural intuitions, of divination, +prediction or prophecy properly so-called, we find that there was +practically nothing to warn us of the vast peril. This does not mean +that there was any lack of predictions or prophecies collected after +the event; these number, it appears, no fewer than eighty-three; but +none of them, excepting those of Leon Sonrel and the Rector of Ars, +which we will examine in a moment, is worthy of serious discussion. I +shall therefore mention, by way of a reminder, only the most widely +known; and, first of all, the famous prophecy of Mayence or Strasburg, +which is supposed to have been discovered by a certain Jecker in an +ancient convent founded near Mayence by St. Hildegard, of which the +original text could not be found and of which no one until lately had +ever heard. Then there is another prophecy of Mayence or Fiensberg, +published in the _Neue Metaphysische Rundschau_ of Berlin in February, +1912, in which the end of the German Empire is announced for the year +1913. Next, we have various predictions uttered by Mme. de Thebes, by +Dom Bosco, by the Blessed Andrew Bobola, by Korzenicki, the Polish +monk, by Tolstoy, by Brother Hermann and so on, which are even less +interesting; and lastly the prophecy of "Brother Johannes," published +by M. Josephin Peladan in the _Figaro_ of 16 September, 1914, which +contains no evidence of genuineness and must therefore meanwhile be +regarded merely as an ingenious literary conceit. + + +3 + +All these, on examination, leave but a worthless residuum; but the +prophecies of the Rector of Ars and of Leon Sonrel are more curious +and worthy of a moment's attention. + +Father Jean-Baptiste Vianney, Rector of Ars, was, as everybody knows, +a very saintly priest, who appears to have been endowed with +extraordinary mediumistic faculties. The prophecy in question was +made public in 1862, three years after the miracle-worker's death, and +was confirmed by a letter which Mgr. Perriet addressed to the Very +Rev. Dom Grea on the 24th of February, 1908. Moreover, it was printed, +as far back as 1872, in a collection entitled, _Voix prophetiques, ou +signes, apparitions et predictions modernes_. It therefore has an +incontestable date. I pass over the part relating to the war of 1870, +which does not offer the same safeguards; but I give that which +concerns the present war, quoting from the 1872 text: + + "The enemies will not go altogether; they will return again + and destroy everything upon their passage; we shall not + resist them, but will allow them to advance; and after that + we shall cut off their provisions and make them suffer great + losses. They will retreat towards their country; we shall + follow them and there will be hardly any who return home. + Then we shall take back all that they took from us and much + more." + +As for the date of the event, it is stated definitely and rather +strikingly in these words: + +"They will want to canonize me, but there will not be time." + +Now the preliminaries to the canonization of Father Vianney were begun +in July, 1914, but abandoned because of the war. + +I now come to the Sonrel prediction. I will summarize it as briefly as +possible from the admirable article which M. de Vesme devoted to it in +the _Annales des sciences psychiques_.[9] + +On the 3rd of June, 1914--observe the date--Professor Charles Richet +handed M. de Vesme, from Dr. Amedee Tardieu, a manuscript of which +the following is the substance: on the 23rd or 24th of July, 1869, Dr. +Tardieu was strolling in the gardens of the Luxembourg with his friend +Leon Sonrel, a former pupil of the Higher Normal School and teacher of +natural philosophy at the Paris Observatory, when the latter had a +kind of vision in the course of which he predicted various precise and +actual episodes of the war of 1870, such as the collection on behalf +of the wounded at the moment of departure and the amount of the sum +collected in the soldiers' kepis; incidents of the journey to the +frontier; the battle of Sedan, the rout of the French, the civil war, +the siege of Paris, his own death, the birth of a posthumous child, +the doctor's political career and so on: predictions all of which were +verified, as is attested by numerous witnesses who are worthy of the +fullest credence. But I will pass over this part of the story and +consider only that portion which refers to the present war: + + "I have been waiting for two years," to quote the text of + Dr. Tardieu's manuscript of the 3rd of June, "for the sequel + of the prediction which you are about to read. I omit + everything that concerns my friend Leon's family and my + private affairs. Yet there is in my life at this moment a + personal matter, which, as always happens, agrees too + closely with general occurrences for me to doubt what + follows: + + "'O my God! My country is lost: France is dead!... What a + disaster!... Ah, see, she is saved! She extends to the + Rhine! O France, O my beloved country, you are triumphant; + you are the queen of nations!... Your genius shines forth + over the world.... All the earth wonders at you....'" + +These are the words contained in the document written at the Mont-Dore +on the 3rd and handed to M. de Vesme on the 13th of June 1914, at a +moment when no one was thinking of the terrible war which to-day is +ravaging half the world. + +When questioned, after the declaration of war, by M. de Vesme on the +subject of the prophetic phrase, "I have been waiting for two years +for the sequel of the prediction which you are about to read," Dr. +Tardieu replied, on the 12th of August: + +"I have been waiting for two years; and I will tell you why. My friend +Leon did not name the year, but the more general events are described +simultaneously with the events of my own life. Now the events which +concern me privately and which were doubtful two years ago became +certain in April or May last. My friends know that since May last I +have been announcing war as due before September, basing my prediction +on coincidences with events in my private life of which I do not +speak." + + +4 + +These, up to the present, are the only prophecies known to us that +deserve any particular attention. The prediction in both is timid and +laconic; but, in those regions where the least gleam of light assumes +extraordinary importance, it is not to be neglected. I admit, for the +rest, that there has so far been no time to carry out a serious +enquiry on this point, but I should be greatly surprised if any such +enquiry gave positive results and if it did not allowed us to state +that the gigantic event, as a whole, as a general event, was neither +foreseen nor divined. On the other hand, we shall probably learn, when +the enquiry is completed, that hundreds of deaths, accidents, wounds +and cases of individual ruin and misfortune, included in the great +disaster, were predicted by clairvoyants, by mediums, by dreams and by +every other manner of premonition with a definiteness sufficient to +eliminate any kind of doubt. I have said elsewhere what I think of +individual predictions of this kind, which seem to be no more than the +reading of the presentiments which we carry within us, presentiments +which themselves, in the majority of cases, are but the perception, by +the as yet imperfectly known senses of our subconsciousness, of +events, in course of formation or in process of realization, which +escape the attention of our understanding. However, it would still +remain to be explained how a wholly accidental death or wound could be +perceived by these subliminal senses as an event in course of +formation. In any case, it would once more be confirmed, after this +great test, that the knowledge of the future, so soon as it ceases to +refer to a strictly personal fact and one, moreover, not at all +remote, is always illusory, or rather impossible. + +Apart then from these strictly personal cases, which for the moment we +will agree to set aside, it appears more than ever certain that there +is no communication between ourselves and the vast store of events +which have not yet occurred and which nevertheless seem already to +exist at some place where they await the hour to advance upon us, or +rather the moment when we shall pass before them. As for the +exceptional and precarious infiltrations which belong not merely to +the present that is still unknown, veiled or disguised, but really to +the future, apart from the two which we have just examined, which are +inconclusive, I for my part know of but four or five that appear to be +rigorously verified; and these I have discussed in the essay already +mentioned. For that matter, they have no bearing upon the present war. +They are, when all is said, so exceptional that they do not prove +much; at the most, they seem to confirm the idea that a store exists +filled with future events as real, as distinct and as immutable as +those of the past; and they allow us to hope that there are paths +leading thither which as yet we do not know, but which it will not be +for ever impossible to discover. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 9: August, September and October, 1915.] + + * * * * * + + + + +THE WILL OF EARTH + + + + +XX + +THE WILL OF EARTH + + +1 + +To-day's conflict is but a revival of that which has not ceased to +drench the west of Europe in blood since the historical birth of the +continent. The two chief episodes in the conflict, as we all know, are +the invasion of Roman Gaul, including the north of Italy, by the +Franks and the successive conquests of England by the Anglo-Saxons and +the Normans. Without delaying to consider questions of race, which are +complex, uncertain and always open to discussion, we may, regarding +the matter from another aspect, perceive in the persistency and the +bitterness of this conflict the clash of two wills, of which one or +the other succumbs for a moment, only to rise up again with increased +energy and obstinacy. On the one hand is the will of earth or nature, +which, in the human species as in all others, openly favours brute or +physical force; and on the other hand is the will of humanity, or at +least of a portion of humanity, which seeks to establish the empire of +other more subtle and less animal forces. It is incontestable that +hitherto the former has always won the day. But it is equally +incontestable that its victory has always been only apparent and of +brief duration. It has regularly suffered defeat in its very triumph. +Gaul, invaded and overrun, presently absorbs her victor, even as +England little by little transforms her conquerors. On the morrow of +victory, the instruments of the will of earth turn upon her and arm +the hand of the vanquished. It is probable that the same phenomenon +would recur once more to-day, were events to follow the course +prescribed by destiny. Germany, after crushing and enslaving the +greater part of Europe, after driving her back and burdening her with +innumerable woes, would end by turning against the will which she +represents; and that will, which until to-day had always found in this +race a docile tool and its favourite accomplices, would be forced to +seek these elsewhere, a task less easy than of old. + + +2 + +But now, to the amazement of all those who will one day consider them +in cold blood, events are suddenly ascending the irresistible current +and, for the first time since we have been in a position to observe +it, the adverse will is encountering an unexpected and insurmountable +resistance. If this resistance, as we can now no longer doubt, +maintains itself victoriously to the end, there will never perhaps +have been such a sudden change in the history of mankind; for man +will have gained, over the will of earth or nature or fatality, a +triumph infinitely more significant, more heavily fraught with +consequences and perhaps more decisive than all those which, in other +provinces, appear to have crowned his efforts more brilliantly. + +Let us not then be surprised that this resistance should be +stupendous, or that it should be prolonged beyond anything that our +experience of wars has taught us to expect. It was our prompt and easy +defeat that was written in the annals of destiny. We had against us +all the force accumulated since the birth of Europe. We have to set +history revolving in the reverse direction. We are on the point of +succeeding; and, if it be true that intelligent beings watch us from +the vantage-point of other worlds, they will assuredly witness the +most curious spectacle that our planet has offered them since they +discovered it amid the dust of stars that glitters in space around +it. They must be telling themselves in amazement that the ancient and +fundamental laws of earth are suddenly being transgressed. + + +3 + +Suddenly? That is going too far. This transgression of a lower law, +which was no longer of the stature of mankind, had been preparing for +a very long time; but it was within an ace of being hideously +punished. It succeeded only by the aid of a part of those who formerly +swelled the great wave which they are to-day resisting by our side, as +though something in the history of the world or the plans of destiny +had altered, or rather as though we ourselves had at last succeeded in +altering that something and in modifying laws to which until this day +we were wholly subject. + +But it must not be thought that the conflict will end with the +victory. The deep-seated forces of earth will not be at once disarmed; +for a long time to come the invisible war will be waged under the +reign of peace. If we are not careful, victory may even be more +disastrous to us than defeat. For defeat, indeed, like previous +defeats, would have been merely a victory postponed. It would have +absorbed, exhausted, dispersed the enemy, by scattering him about the +world, whereas our victory will bring upon us a twofold peril. It will +leave the enemy in a state of savage isolation in which, thrown back +upon himself, cramped, purified by misfortune and poverty, he will +secretly reinforce his formidable virtues, while we, for our part, no +longer held in check by his unbearable but salutary menace, will give +rein to failings and vices which sooner or later will place us at his +mercy. Before thinking of peace, then, we must make sure of the future +and render it powerless to injure us. We cannot take too many +precautions, for we are setting ourselves against the manifest desire +of the power that bears us. + +This is why our efforts are difficult and worthy of praise. We are +setting ourselves--we cannot too often repeat it--against the will of +earth. Our enemies are urged forward by a force that drives us back. +They are marching with nature, whereas we are striving against the +great current that sweeps the globe. The earth has an idea, which is +no longer ours. She remains convinced that man is an animal in all +things like other animals. She has not yet observed that he is +withdrawing himself from the herd. She does not yet know that he has +climbed her highest mountain-peaks. She has not yet heard tell of +justice, pity, loyalty and honour; she does not realize what they are, +or confounds them with weakness, clumsiness, fear and stupidity. She +has stopped short at the original certitudes which were indispensable +to the beginnings of life. She is lagging behind us; and the interval +that divides us is rapidly increasing. She thinks less quickly; she +has not yet had time to understand us. Moreover, she does not reckon +as we do; and for her the centuries are less than our years. She is +slow because she is almost eternal, while we are prompt because we +have not many hours before us. It may be that one day her thought will +overtake ours; in the meantime, we have to vindicate our advance and +to prove to ourselves, as we are beginning to do, that it is lawful to +be in the right as against her, that our advance is not fatal and that +it is possible to maintain it. + + +4 + +For it is becoming difficult to argue that earth or nature is always +right and that those who do not blindly follow earth's impulse are +necessarily doomed to perish. We have learnt to observe her more +attentively and we have won the right to judge her. We have discovered +that, far from being infallible, she is continually making mistakes. +She gropes and hesitates. She does not know precisely what she wants. +She begins by making stupendous blunders. She first peoples the world +with uncouth and incoherent monsters, not one of which is capable of +living; these all disappear. Gradually she acquires, at the cost of +the life which she creates, an experience that is the cruel fruit of +the immeasurable suffering which she unfeelingly inflicts. At last she +grows wiser, curbs and amends herself, corrects herself, returns upon +her footsteps, repairs her errors, expending her best energies and her +highest intelligence upon the correction. It is incontestable that she +is improving her methods, that she is more skillful, more prudent, +less extravagant than at the outset. And yet the fact remains that, in +every department of life, in every organism, down to our own bodies, +there is a survival of bad workmanship, of twofold functions, of +oversights, changes of intention, absurdities, useless complications +and meaningless waste. We therefore have no reason to believe that our +enemies are in the right because earth is with them. Earth does not +possess the truth any more than we do. She seeks it, even as we do, +and discovers it no more readily. She seems to know no more than we +whither she is going nor whither she is being led by that which leads +all things. We must not listen to her without enquiry; and we need not +distress ourselves or despair because we are not of her opinion. We +are not dealing with an infallible and unchangeable wisdom, to oppose +which in our thoughts would be madness. We are actually proving to +her that it is she who is in the wrong; that man's reason for +existence is loftier than that which she provisionally assigned to +him; that he is already outstripping all that she foresaw; and that +she does wrong to delay his advance. She is, for that matter, full of +goodwill, is able on occasion to recognize her mistakes and to obviate +their disastrous results and by no means takes refuge in majestic and +inflexible self-conceit. If we are able to persevere, we shall be able +to convince her. This will take much time, for, I repeat, she is slow, +though in no wise obstinate. It will take much time because a very +long future is in question, a very great change and the most important +victory that man has ever hoped to win. + + * * * * * + + + + +FOR POLAND + + + + +XXI + +FOR POLAND + + +1 + +The Allies have entered into a solemn compact that none of them will +conclude a separate peace. They undertook recently, by an equally +irrevocable convention, that they would not lay down their arms until +Belgium was delivered. These two acts, one of prudence, the other of +elementary justice, appear at first sight superfluous. Yet they were +necessary. It is well that nations, even more than men, because their +conscience is less stable, should secure themselves against the +mistakes and weakness and ingratitude which too often accompany strife +and which even more often follow victory. To-morrow they will do for +Servia what they have done in the case of Belgium; but there is a +third victim, of whom too little is said, who has the same rights as +the other two; and to forget her would forever attaint the honour and +the justice of those who took up arms only in the name of justice and +honour. + + +2 + +I need not recall the fate of Poland. It is in certain respects more +tragic and more pitiful than that of Belgium or of Servia. She had not +even the opportunity to choose between dishonour and annihilation. + +Three successive acts of injustice, which were, until to-day, the most +shameful recorded by history, deprived her of the glory of that heroic +choice which she would have made in the same spirit, for she had +already thrice made it in the past, a choice which this day sustains +and consoles her two martyred sisters in their profoundest +tribulations. It would be too unjust if an ancient injustice, which +even yet weighs upon the memory and the conscience of Europe, should +become the sole reason of yet a last iniquity, which this time would +be inexpiable. + + +3 + +True, the Grand-duke Nicolas made noble and generous promises to +Poland; and these promises were repeated at the opening of the Duma. +This is good and shows the irresistible force of the awakening +conscience of a great empire; but it is not enough. Such promises +involve only those who make them; they do not bind a nation. We will +not insult Russia by doubting her intentions; but among all the +certainties which history teaches us there is one that has been +acquired once and for all; and this is that in politics and +international morality intentions count for nothing and that a +promise, made by no matter what nations, will be kept only if those +who make it also render it impossible for themselves to do otherwise +than keep it. For the rest, the question at present is not one of +intentions, nor confidence, nor pity, nor even of interest. Others +have spoken and will speak again, better than I could, of Poland's +terrible distress and of the danger, which is far more formidable and +far more imminent than is generally believed, of those German +intrigues which are seeking to seduce from us and, despite themselves, +to turn against us twenty millions of desperate people and nearly a +million soldiers, who will die, perhaps, rather than join our enemies, +but who, in any case, cannot fight in our ranks as they would have +done had the word for which they are waiting in their anguish been +spoken before it was too late. + + +4 + +But, however grave the peril, we are, I repeat, far less concerned +with this at the present moment than with the question of justice. +Poland has an absolute and sacred right to be treated even as the +other two victims of this war of justice. She is their equal, she is +of the same rank and on the same level. She has suffered what they +have suffered, for the same cause, in the same spirit and with the +same heroism; and if she has not done what the two others have done it +is because only the ingratitude of all those whom she had more than +once saved, together with one of the greatest crimes in history, +prevented her from doing so. + +It is time for the Europe of to-day to repair the iniquity committed +by the Europe of other days. We are nothing, we are no better than our +enemies, we have no title to deliver millions of innocent men to +death, unless we stand for justice. The idea of justice alone must +rule all that we undertake, for we are united, we have risen and we +exist only in its name. At this moment we occupy all the pinnacles of +this justice, to which we have brought such an impulse, such +sacrifices and such heroism as we shall perhaps never behold again. We +shall never rise higher; let us then form at this present time +resolutions which will forbid us to descend; and Europe would descend, +to a depth greater than was hers in the unpardonable hour of the +partition of Poland, did she not before all else repair the immense +fault which she committed when she had not yet discovered her +conscience and did not yet know what she knows to-day. + + * * * * * + + + + +THE MIGHT OF THE DEAD + + + + +XXII + +THE MIGHT OF THE DEAD + + +1 + +In _A Beleaguered City_, a little book which, in its curious way, is a +masterpiece, Mrs. Oliphant shows us the dead of a provincial town +suddenly waxing indignant over the conduct and the morals of those +inhabiting the town which they had founded. They rise up in rebellion, +invest the houses, the streets, the market-places and, by the pressure +of their innumerable multitude, all-powerful though invisible, repulse +the living, thrust them out of doors and, setting a strict watch, +permit them to return to their roof-trees only after a treaty of peace +and penitence has purified their hearts, atoned for their offences +and ensured a more worthy future. + +There is undoubtedly a great truth beneath this fiction, which appears +too far-fetched because we perceive only material and ephemeral +realities. The dead live and move in our midst far more really and +effectually than the most venturesome imagination could depict. It is +very doubtful whether they remain in their graves. It even seems +increasingly certain that they never allowed themselves to be confined +there. Under the tombstones where we believe them to lie imprisoned +there are only a few ashes, which are no longer theirs, which they +have abandoned without regret and which, in all probability, they no +longer deign to remember. All that was themselves continues to have +its being in our midst. How and under what aspect? After all these +thousands, perhaps millions, of years, we do not yet know; and no +religion has been able to tell us with satisfying certainty, though +all have striven to do so; but we may, by means of certain tokens, +hope to learn. + +Without further considering a mighty but obscure truth, which it is +for the moment impossible to state precisely or to render palpable, +let us concern ourselves with one which cannot be disputed. As I have +said elsewhere, whatever our religious faith may be, there is in any +case one place where our dead cannot perish, where they continue to +exist as really as when they were in the flesh and often more +actively; and this living abiding-place, this consecrated spot, which +for those whom we have lost becomes heaven or hell according as we +draw close to or depart from their thoughts and their desires, is in +us. + +And their thoughts and their desires are always higher than our own. +It is, therefore, by uplifting ourselves that we approach them. It is +we who must take the first steps, for they can no longer descend, +whereas it is always possible for us to rise; for the dead, whatever +they have been in life, become better than the best of us. The least +worthy of them, in shedding the body, have shed its vices, its +littlenesses, its weaknesses, which soon pass from our memory as well; +and the spirit alone remains, which is pure in every man and able to +desire only what is good. There are no wicked dead because there are +no wicked souls. This is why, as we purify ourselves, we restore life +to those who were no more and transform our memory, which they +inhabit, into heaven. + + +2 + +And what was always true of all the dead is far more true to-day when +only the best are chosen for the tomb. In the region which we believe +to be under the earth, which we call the kingdom of the shades and +which in reality is the ethereal region and the kingdom of light, +there are at this moment perturbations no less profound than those +which we are experiencing on the surface of our earth. The young dead +are invading it from every side; and since the beginning of this world +they have never been so numerous, so full of energy and zeal. Whereas +in the customary sequence of the years the dwelling-place of those who +leave us receives only weary and exhausted lives, there is not one in +this incomparable host who, to borrow Pericles' expression, "has not +departed from life at the height of glory." Not one of them but has +gone up, not down, to his death clad in the greatest sacrifice that +man can make for an idea which cannot die. All that we have hitherto +believed, all that we have striven to attain beyond ourselves, all +that has lifted us to the level at which we stand, all that has +overcome the evil days and the evil instincts of human nature: all +this could have been no more than lies and illusions if such men as +these, such a mass of merit and of glory, were really annihilated, had +really forever disappeared, were forever useless and voiceless, +forever without influence in a world to which they have given life. + + +3 + +It is hardly possible that this could be so as regards the external +survival of the dead; but it is absolutely certain that it is not so +as regards their survival in ourselves. Here nothing is lost and no +one perishes. Our memories are to-day peopled by a multitude of heroes +struck down in the flower of their youth and very different from the +pale and languid cohort of the past, composed almost wholly of the +sick and the aged, who already had ceased to exist before leaving the +earth. We must tell ourselves that now, in each of our homes, both in +our cities and in the country-side, both in the palace and in the +meanest hovel, there lives and reigns a young dead man in the glory of +his strength. He fills the poorest, darkest dwelling with a splendour +of which it had never ventured to dream. His constant presence, +imperious and inevitable, diffuses through it and maintains a religion +and ideas which it had never known there before, hallows everything +around it, forces the eyes to look higher and the spirit to refrain +from descending, purifies the air that is breathed and the speech that +is held and the thoughts that are mustered there and, little by +little, ennobles and uplifts a whole people on a scale of unexampled +vastness. + + +4 + +Such dead as these have a power as profound, as fruitful as life and +less precarious. It is terrible that this experience should have been +made, for it is the most pitiless and the first in such enormous +masses that mankind has ever undergone; but, now that the ordeal is +almost over, we shall soon derive from it the most unexpected fruits. +It will not be long before we see the differences increase and the +destinies diverge between the nations which have acquired all these +dead and all this glory and those which were deprived of them; and we +shall perceive with amazement that those nations which have lost the +most are those which have kept their riches and their men. There are +losses which are inestimable gains; and there are gains whereby the +future is lost. There are dead whom the living cannot replace and the +mere thought of whom accomplishes things which their bodies could not +perform. There are dead whose energy surpasses death and recovers +life; and we are almost every one of us at this moment the mandataries +of a being greater, nobler, graver, wiser and more truly living than +ourselves. With all those who accompany him, he will be our judge, if +it is the fact that the dead weigh the soul of the living and that on +their verdict our happiness depends. He will be our guide and our +protector, for it is the first time, since history has revealed its +misfortunes to us, that man has felt so great a host of such mighty +dead soaring above his head and speaking within his heart. + + +5 + +We shall live henceforward under their laws, which will be more just +but not more severe nor more cheerless than ours; for it is a mistake +to suppose that the dead love nothing but gloom; they love only the +justice and the truth which are the eternal forms of happiness. From +the depths of this justice and this truth in which they are all +immersed, they will help us to destroy the great falsehoods of +existence: for war and death, if they sow innumerable miseries and +misfortunes, have at least the merit of destroying as many lies as +they occasion evils. And all the sacrifices which they have made for +us will have been in vain--and this is not possible--if they do not +first of all bring about the fall of the lies on which we live and +which it is not necessary to name, for each of us knows his own and is +ashamed of them and will be eager to make an end of them. They will +teach us, before all else, from the depths of our hearts which are +their living tombs, to love those who outlive them, since it is in +them alone that they wholly exist. + + * * * * * + + + + +WHEN THE WAR IS OVER + + + + +XXIII + +WHEN THE WAR IS OVER + + +1 + +Before closing this book, I wish to weigh for the last time in my +conscience the words of hatred and malediction which it has made me +speak in spite of myself. We have to do with the strangest of enemies. +He has knowingly and deliberately, while in the full possession of his +faculties and without necessity or excuse, revived all the crimes +which we supposed to be forever buried in the barbarous past. He has +trampled under foot all the precepts which man had so painfully won +from the cruel darkness of his beginnings; he has violated all the +laws of justice, humanity, loyalty and honour, from the highest, which +are almost godlike, to the simplest, the most elementary, which still +belong to the lower worlds. There is no longer any doubt on this +point: it has been proved over and over again until we have attained a +final certitude. + +But on the other hand, it is no less certain that he has displayed +virtues which it would be unworthy of us to deny; for we honour +ourselves in recognizing the valour of those whom we are fighting. He +has gone to his death in deep, compact, disciplined masses, with a +blind, hopeless, obstinate heroism of which no such lurid example had +ever yet been known, a heroism which has many times compelled our +admiration and our pity. He has known how to sacrifice himself, with +unprecedented and perhaps unequalled abnegation, to an idea which we +know to be false, inhuman and even somewhat mean, but which he +believes to be just and lofty; and a sacrifice of this kind, whatever +its object, is always the proof of a force which survives those who +devote themselves to making it and must command respect. + +I know very well that this heroism is not like the heroism which we +love. For us, heroism must before all be voluntary, freed from any +constraint, active, ardent, eager and spontaneous; whereas with them +it has mingled with it a great deal of servility, passiveness, +sadness, gloomy, ignorant, massive submission and rather base fears. +It is nevertheless the fact that, in the moment of supreme peril, +little remains of all these distinctions and that no force in the +world can drive to its death a people which does not bear within +itself the strength to confront it. Our soldiers make no mistake upon +this point. Question the men returning from the trenches: they detest +the enemy, they abhor the aggressor, the unjust and arrogant +aggressor, uncouth, too often cruel and treacherous; but they do not +hate the man: they do him justice; they pity him; and, after the +battle, in the defenceless wounded soldier or disarmed prisoner they +recognize, with astonishment, a brother in misfortune who, like +themselves, is submitting to duties and laws which, like themselves, +he too believes lofty and necessary. Under the insufferable enemy they +see an unhappy man who also is bearing the burden of life. They forget +the things that divide them to recall only those which unite them in a +common destiny; and they teach us a great lesson. Better than +ourselves, who are removed from danger, at the contact of profound and +fearful verities and realities they are already beginning to discern +something that we cannot yet perceive; and their obscure instinct is +probably anticipating the judgment of history and our own judgment, +when we see more clearly. Let us learn from them to be just and to +distinguish that which we are bound to despise and loathe from that +which we may pity, love and respect. + +Setting aside the unpardonable aggression and the inexpiable violation +of treaties, this war, despite its insanity, has come near to being a +bloody but magnificent proof of greatness, heroism and the spirit of +sacrifice. Humanity was ready to rise above itself, to surpass all +that it had hitherto accomplished. It has surpassed it. Never before +had nations been seen capable, for months on end, perhaps for years, +of renouncing their repose, their security, their wealth, their +comfort, all that they possessed and loved down to their very life, in +order to accomplish what they believed to be their duty. Never before +had nations been seen that were able as a whole to understand and +admit that the happiness of each of those who live in this time of +trial is of no consequence compared with the honour of those who live +no more or the happiness of those who are not yet alive. We stand on +heights that had not been attained before. And if, on the enemies' +side, this unexampled renunciation had not been poisoned at its +source; if the war which they are waging against us had been as fine, +as loyal, as generous, as chivalrous as that which we are waging +against them, we may well believe that it would have been the last and +that it would have ended, not in battle, but, like the awakening from +an evil dream, in a noble and fraternal amazement. They have made that +impossible; and this, we may be sure, is the disappointment which the +future will find it most difficult to forgive them. + + +2 + +What are we to do now? Must we hate the enemy to the end of time? The +burden of hatred is the heaviest that man can bear upon this earth; +and we should faint under the weight of it. On the other hand, we do +not wish once more to be the dupes and victims of confidence and love. +Here again our soldiers, in their simplicity, which is so clear-seeing +and so close to the truth, anticipate the future and teach us what to +admit and what to avoid. We have seen that they do not hate the man; +but they do not trust him at all. They discover the human being in him +only when he is unarmed. They know, from bitter experience, that, so +long as he possesses weapons, he cannot resist the frenzy of +destruction, treachery and slaughter; and that he does not become +kindly until he is rendered powerless. + +Is he thus by nature, or has he been perverted by those who lead him? +Have the rulers dragged the whole nation after them, or has the whole +nation driven its rulers on? Did the rulers make the nation like unto +themselves, or did the nation select and support them because they +resembled itself? Did the evil come from above or below, or was it +everywhere? Here we have the great and obscure point of this terrible +adventure. It is not easy to throw light upon it and still less easy +to find excuses for it. If our enemies prove that they were deceived +and corrupted by their masters, they prove, at the same time, that +they are less intelligent, less firmly attached to justice, honour and +humanity, less civilized, in a word, than those whom they claimed the +right to enslave in the name of a superiority which they themselves +have proved not to exist; and, unless they can establish that their +errors, perfidies and cruelties, which can no longer be denied, should +be imputed only to those masters, then they themselves must bear the +pitiless weight. I do not know how they will escape from this +predicament, nor what the future will decide, that future which is +wiser than the past, even as, in the words of an old Slav proverb, the +dawn is wiser than the eve. In the meanwhile, let us copy the prudence +of our soldiers, who know what to believe far better than we do. + + * * * * * + + + + +THE MASSACRE OF THE INNOCENTS + + + + +XXIV + +THE MASSACRE OF THE INNOCENTS + + + _The Massacre of the Innocents_ appeared for the first time + in 1886, in a little periodical called _La Pleiade_ which + some friends and I had founded in the Latin Quarter and + which died of inanition after its sixth number. My reason + for making room in the present volume for these pages + marking a very modest start--they were the first that found + their way into print--is not that I am under any delusion as + to the merits of this youthful work, in which I had simply + aimed at reproducing as best I could the different episodes + of a picture in the Brussels Museum, painted in the + sixteenth century by Pieter Brueghel the Elder. But it + appeared to me that circumstances had made of this humble + literary effort a sort of prophetic vision; for it is but + too likely that similar scenes must have been repeated in + more than one of our unhappy Flemish or Brabant villages and + that to describe them as they were lately enacted we should + have only to change the name of the butchers and probably, + alas, to accentuate their cruelty, their injustice and their + hideousness!--M. M. + + +It was close upon supper-time, that Friday the twenty-sixth day of the +month of December, when a little shepherd-lad came into Nazareth, +sobbing bitterly. + +Some peasants drinking ale in the Blue Lion opened the shutters to +look into the village orchard and observed the child running over the +snow. They saw that he was Korneliz' boy and cried from the window: + +"What's the matter? Get home with you to bed!" + +But he replied in terror that the Spaniards were come, that they had +set fire to the farm, hanged his mother among the walnut-trees and +bound his nine little sisters to the trunk of a big tree. + +The peasants rushed out of the inn, gathered round the child and plied +him with questions. Then he also told them that the soldiers were on +horseback and wore mail, that they had driven away the cattle of his +uncle Petrus Krayer and that they would soon be entering the forest +with the cows and sheep. + +All ran to the Golden Sun, where Korneliz and his brother-in-law were +also drinking their pot of ale; and the inn-keeper sped into the +village, shouting that the Spaniards were at hand. + +Then there was a great din in Nazareth. The women opened the windows +and the peasants left their houses with lights which they put out as +soon as they reached the orchard, where it was bright as midday, +because of the snow and the full moon. + +They crowded round Korneliz and Krayer in the market-place, in front +of the two inns. Several had brought their pitchforks and their rakes +and consulted one another, terror-stricken, under the trees. + +But, as they knew not what to do, one of them went to fetch the +parish-priest, who owned Korneliz' farm. He came out of his house with +the sacristan, bringing the keys of the church. All followed him into +the churchyard; and he shouted to them from the top of the tower that +he could see nothing in the fields nor in the forest, but that there +were red clouds in the neighbourhood of his farm, though the sky was +blue and full of stars over all the rest of the country. + +After deliberating for a long time in the churchyard, they decided to +hide in the wood through which the Spaniards would have to pass and to +attack them if they were not too many, so as to recover Petrus +Krayer's cattle and the plunder which they had taken from the farm. + +They armed themselves with pitchforks and spades; and the women +remained near the church with the priest. + +Seeking a suitable spot for their ambuscade, they came to a mill on +the skirt of the forest and saw the farm burning amid the starlight. +Here, under some huge oaks, in front of a frozen pool, they took up +their position. + +A shepherd whom they called the Red Dwarf went up the hill to warn the +miller, who had stopped his mill when he saw the flames on the +horizon. He invited the fellow in, however; and the two of them placed +themselves at a window to watch the distance. + +In front of them the moon was shining over the burning farm; and they +saw a long host marching over the snow. When they had taken stock of +it, the Dwarf went down to those in the forest; and presently they +descried four horsemen above a herd of animals that seemed to be +cropping the grass. + +As the men, in their blue hose and their red cloaks, were looking +around them on the edge of the pool and under the snow-lit trees, the +sacristan pointed to a box-hedge; and they went and hid behind it. + +The cattle and the Spaniards came over the ice; and the sheep on +reaching the hedge were already beginning to nibble at the leaves, +when Korneliz broke through the bushes; and the others followed with +their pitchforks into the light. Then there was a great slaughter on +the pond, while the huddled sheep and the cows gazed at the battle in +their midst and at the moon above them. + +When the men and the horses had been killed, Korneliz ran into the +meadows towards the flames; and the others stripped the dead. Then +they went back to the village with the herds. The women watching the +gloomy forest from behind the walls of the churchyard saw them +approaching through the trees and, with the priest, hurried to meet +them; and they returned dancing gleefully all amongst the children and +the dogs. + +While they made merry under the pear-trees in the orchard, where the +Red Dwarf hung up lanterns as a sign of kermis, they consulted the +priest as to what they were to do. + +They at last resolved to put a horse to a cart and fetch the bodies of +the woman and her nine little daughters to the village. The dead +woman's sisters and the other peasant-women of her family climbed into +it, as did the priest, who was not well able to walk, being advanced +in years and very stout. + +They entered the forest once more and arrived in silence at the +dazzling white plain, where they saw the naked men and the horses +lying on their backs upon the gleaming ice among the trees. Then they +went on to the farm, which they could see burning in the distance. + +When they came to the orchard and to the house all red with flames, +they stopped at the gate to mark the great misfortune that had +befallen the farmer in his garden. His wife was hanging all naked from +the branches of a great walnut-tree; he himself was mounting a ladder +to climb the tree, around which the nine little girls were waiting +for their mother on the grass. Already he was walking among the huge +boughs, when suddenly he saw the crowd, black against the snow, +watching him. Weeping, he made signs to them to help him; and they +went into the garden. Then the sacristan, the Red Dwarf, the landlord +of the Blue Lion and he of the Golden Sun, the parish-priest, with a +lantern, and many other peasants climbed into the snow-laden +walnut-tree to cut down the corpse, which the women of the village +received in their arms at the foot of the tree, even as at the descent +from the Cross of Our Lord Jesus Christ. + +The next day they buried her; and nothing else out of the common +happened at Nazareth that week. But, on the following Sunday, hungry +wolves ran through the village after high mass and it snowed until +noon; then the sun suddenly shone in the sky; and the peasants went +in to dinner, as was their wont, and dressed for benediction. + +At that moment there was no one in the market-place, for it was +freezing cruelly. Only the dogs and hens remained under the trees, +where some sheep were nibbling at a three-cornered patch of grass, +while the priest's maid-servant swept away the snow from the +presbytery-garden. + +Then a troop of armed men crossed the stone bridge at the end of the +village and halted in the orchard. Some peasants came out of their +houses; but, on recognizing the Spaniards, they retreated in terror +and went to their windows to see what would happen. + +There were some thirty horsemen, clad in armour, around an old man +with a white beard. Behind them they carried red and yellow +foot-soldiers, who jumped down and ran over the snow to shake off +their stiffness, while several of the men in armour also alighted and +eased themselves against the trees to which they had fastened their +horses. + +Then they turned to the Golden Sun and knocked at the door. It was +opened hesitatingly; and they warmed themselves at the fire and called +for ale. + +Next they came out of the inn, carrying pots and jugs and wheaten +loaves for their comrades, who sat ranked around the man with the +white beard, waiting in the midst of the lances. + +As the street was empty, the commander sent horsemen to the back of +the houses, to guard the village on its open side, and ordered the +foot-soldiers to bring to him all the children of two years old and +under, to be massacred, as is written in the Gospel according to St. +Matthew. + +The soldiers went first to the inn of the Green Cabbage and to the +barber's cottage, which stood side by side, midway in the street. + +One of them opened a stable-door; and a litter of pigs escaped and +scattered over the village. The inn-keeper and the barber came out and +humbly asked the soldiers what they wanted; but the men knew no +Flemish and went in to look for the children. + +The inn-keeper had one, which sat crying in its little shirt on the +table where they had just had dinner. A man took the child in his arms +and carried it away under the apple-tree, while the father and mother +followed him with cries of lamentation. + +The soldiers also threw open the cooper's shed and the blacksmith's +and the cobbler's; and the calves, cows, asses, pigs, goats and sheep +strayed about the market-place. When the men broke the glass of the +carpenter's windows, several of the peasants, including the oldest and +richest farmers in the parish, assembled in the street and went +towards the Spaniards. They doffed their hats and caps respectfully to +the leader in his velvet cloak and asked him what he was going to do; +but even he did not understand their language; and some one went to +fetch the priest. + +He was making ready for benediction and putting on a gold cope in the +sacristy. The peasant called out: + +"The Spaniards are in the orchard!" + +Horrified, the priest ran to the church-door, accompanied by the +serving-boys carrying tapers and censer. + +Then he saw the animals released from their sheds roaming on the snow +and the grass, the horsemen in the village, the soldiers outside the +doors, the horses tied to the trees along the street and the men and +women entreating him who was holding the child in its shirt. + +He rushed to the churchyard; and the peasants turned anxiously to +their priest, coming through the pear-trees like a god robed in gold, +and stood around him and the man with the white beard. + +He spoke in Flemish and Latin; but the commander shrugged his +shoulders slowly up and down to show that he did not understand. + +His parishioners asked him under their breath: + +"What does he say? What is he going to do?" + +Others, on seeing the priest in the orchard, came timidly from their +farms; the women hurried up and stood whispering among the groups; +while some soldiers who were besieging an inn ran back at the sight of +the great crowd that was forming in the market-place. + +Then the man who was holding by one leg the child of the landlord of +the Green Cabbage cut off its head with his sword. + +The head fell before their eyes and the body fell after it and lay +bleeding on the grass. The mother picked it up and carried it away, +leaving the head behind her. She ran towards the house, but stumbled +against a tree and fell flat on the snow, where she lay in a swoon, +while the father struggled between two soldiers. + +Some of the younger peasants threw stones and blocks of wood at the +Spaniards, but the horsemen all lowered their lances together, the +women fled and the priest began to cry out in horror with his +parishioners, all among the sheep, the geese and the dogs. + +However, as the soldiers were once more moving down the street, the +folk stood silent to see what they would do. + +The band entered the shop kept by the sacristan's sisters and then +came out quietly, without harming the seven women, who knelt on the +doorstep praying. + +Next they went to the inn owned by the Hunchback of St. Nicholas. Here +also the door was opened directly, to appease them; but they +reappeared amid a great outcry, with three children in their arms and +surrounded by the Hunchback, his wife and his daughters, clasping +their hands in token of entreaty. + +On reaching the old man, the soldiers put down the children at the +foot of an elm, where they remained, sitting on the snow in their +Sunday clothes. But one of them, who wore a yellow frock, rose and +toddled towards the sheep. A man ran after it with his naked sword; +and the child died with its face in the grass, while the others were +killed not far from the tree. + +All the peasants and the inn-keeper's daughters took to flight, +shrieking as they went, and returned to their homes. The priest, left +alone in the orchard, besought the Spaniards with loud cries, going on +his knees from horse to horse, with his arms crossed upon his breast, +while the father and mother, sitting in the snow, wept piteously for +the dead children that lay in their laps. + +As the soldiers ran along the street, they remarked a big blue +farm-house. They tried to break down the door, but it was of oak and +studded with nails. Then they took some tubs that were frozen in a +pool in front of the house and used them to climb to the upper +windows, through which they made their way. + +There had been a kermis at this farm; and kinsfolk had come to eat +waffles, ham and custards with their family. At the sound of the +broken panes, they had assembled behind the table covered with jugs +and dishes. The soldiers entered the kitchen and, after a desperate +struggle, in which many were wounded, they seized the little boys and +girls, as well as the hind, who had bitten a soldier's thumb. Then +they left the house, locking the door behind them to prevent the +inmates from going with them. + +Those of the villagers who had no children slowly left their homes and +followed them from afar. When the soldiers carrying their victims came +to the old man, they threw them on the grass and deliberately killed +them with their spears and their swords, while all along the front of +the blue house the men and women leant out of the windows of the upper +floor and the loft, cursing and rocking wildly in the sunshine at the +sight of the red, pink and white frocks of their little ones lying +motionless on the grass among the trees. Then the soldiers hanged the +hind from the sign of the Half Moon on the other side of the street; +and there was a long silence in the village. + +The massacre now began to spread. Mothers ran out of the houses and +tried to escape to the open country through the gardens and +kitchen-plots; but the horsemen scoured after them and drove them back +into the street. Peasants, holding their caps in their clasped hands, +followed upon their knees the men who were dragging away their +children, among the dogs which barked deliriously amid the din. The +priest, with his arms raised aloft, ran along the houses and under the +trees, praying desperately, like a martyr; and soldiers, shivering +with cold, blew on their fingers as they moved about the road, or, +with their hands in the pockets of their trunks and their swords +tucked under their arms, waited beneath the windows of the houses that +were being scaled. + +On seeing the grief-stricken terror of the peasants, they entered the +farm-houses in little bands; and in like fashion they acted throughout +the length of the street. + +A woman who sold vegetables in the old red-brick cottage near the +church seized a chair and ran after two men who were carrying off her +children in a wheel-barrow. When she saw them die, a sickness overcame +her; and she suffered the folk to press her into the chair, against a +tree by the road-side. + +Other soldiers climbed up the lime-trees in front of a house painted +lilac and removed the tiles in order to enter the house. When they +came out again upon the roof, the father and mother, with outstretched +arms, also appeared in the opening; and they pushed them down +repeatedly, cutting them over the head with their swords, before they +could descend into the street. + +One family, which had locked itself into the cellar of a rambling +cottage, cried through the grating, where the father stood madly +brandishing a pitchfork. An old, bald-headed man was sobbing all alone +on a dung-heap; a woman in yellow had fainted in the market-place and +her husband was holding her under her arms and moaning in the shadow +of a pear-tree; another, in red, was kissing her little girl, who had +lost her hands, and lifting first one arm and then the other to see if +she would not move. Yet another ran into the country and the soldiers +pursued her through the hayricks that bounded the snow-clad fields. + +Beneath the inn of the Four Sons of Aymon there was a tumult as of a +siege. The inhabitants had barred the door; and the soldiers went +round and round the house without being able to make their way in. +They were trying to clamber up to the sign by the fruit-trees against +the front wall, when they caught sight of a ladder behind the +garden-door. They set it against the wall and mounted one after the +other. Thereupon the landlord and all his household hurled tables, +chairs, dishes and cradles at them from the windows. The ladder upset +and the soldiers fell down. + +In a wooden hut, at the end of the village, another band found a +peasant-woman bathing her children in a tub by the fire. Being old and +almost deaf, she did not hear them come in. Two soldiers took the tub +and carried it off; and the dazed woman went after them, with the +children's clothes, wanting to dress them. But, when she came to the +door and suddenly saw the splashes of blood in the village, the swords +in the orchard, the cradles over-turned in the street, women on their +knees and women waving their arms around the dead, she began to cry +out with all her strength and to strike the soldiers, who put down the +tub to defend themselves. The priest also came hastening up and, +folding his hands across his vestment, entreated the Spaniards before +the naked children, who were whimpering in the water. Other soldiers +then came up and pushed him aside and bound the raving peasant-woman +to a tree. + +The butcher had hidden his little daughter and, leaning against his +house, looked on in unconcern. A foot-soldier and one of the men in +armour went in and discovered the child in a copper cauldron. Then the +butcher, in desperation, took one of his knives and chased them down +the street; but a band that was passing struck the knife from his +grasp and hanged him by the hands to the hooks in his wall, among the +flayed carcases, where he twitched his legs and jerked his head and +cursed and swore till evening. + +Near the churchyard, a crowd had assembled outside a long green +farm-house. The farmer stood on his threshold weeping bitter tears; as +he was very fat, with a face made for smiling, the hearts of the +soldiers softened in some measure as they sat in the sun with their +backs to the wall, listening to him and patting his dog the while. But +the one who was dragging the child away by the hand made gestures as +though to say: + +"You may save your tears! It is not my fault!" + +A peasant who was being hotly pursued sprang into a boat moored to the +stone bridge and pushed across the pond with his wife and children. +The soldiers, not daring to venture on the ice, strode angrily through +the reeds. They climbed into the willows on the bank, trying to reach +them with their spears; and, when they failed, continued for a long +time to threaten the family, where they all sat cowering in the middle +of the water. + +Meanwhile, the orchard was still full of people, for it was there that +most of the children were slain, in front of the man with the white +beard who directed the massacre. The little boys and girls who were +big enough to walk alone also collected there and, munching their +bread-and-butter, stood looking on curiously to see the others die or +gathered round the village idiot, who lay upon the grass playing a +whistle. + +Then suddenly a movement ran through the length of the village. The +peasants were turning their steps toward the castle, standing on a +high mound of yellow earth at the end of the street. They had caught +sight of the lord of the village leaning on the battlements of his +tower, watching the massacre. And the men, women and old folk +stretched out their arms to him where he sat in his cloak of purple +velvet and cap of gold and entreated him as though he were a king in +heaven. But he threw up his arms and shrugged his shoulders, to show +his helplessness; and, when they implored him in ever-increasing +anguish and knelt bareheaded in the snow, uttering loud cries, he +turned back slowly into the tower; and in the hearts of the peasants +all hope died. + +When all the children were killed, the tired soldiers wiped their +swords on the grass and supped under the pear-trees. Then the +foot-soldiers mounted behind the others and they all rode out of +Nazareth together, by the stone bridge, as they had come. + +The setting sun lit the forest with a red light and painted the +village a new colour. Weary with running and entreating, the priest +had sat down in the snow in front of the church; and his servant-maid +stood near him, looking around. They saw the street and the orchard +filled with peasants in their holiday attire, moving about the +market-place and along the houses. Outside the doors, families, with +their dead children on their knees, whispered in amazement and horror +of the fate wherewith they had been assailed. Others were still +mourning the child where it had fallen, near a cask, under a barrow or +at a puddle's edge, or were carrying it away in silence. Several were +already washing the benches, chairs, tables and shirts all smirched +with blood and picking up the cradles that had been flung into the +street. But nearly all the mothers were kneeling on the grass under +the trees, before the dead bodies, which they knew by their woollen +frocks. Those who had no children were roaming about the market-place, +stopping to gaze at the afflicted groups. The men who had done weeping +took the dogs and started in pursuit of their strayed beasts, or +mended their broken windows or gaping roofs, while the village grew +hushed and still beneath the light of the moon as it rose slowly in +the sky. + + +THE END + + + + + * * * * * + +Transcriber's Notes + +The following typographical errors have been corrected from the +original book: + +Page 083: inquity changed to iniquity + (example of iniquity would strike the ideals of mankind) + +Page 113: magnificnt " " magnificent + (rejuvenated by our magnificent misfortune,) + +Page 126: alwas " " always + (and always ready with his pleasant smile,) + +Page 174: man " " men + ("So died these men as became Athenians.) + +Page 178: centuies " " centuries + (These words spoken twenty-three centuries ago) + +Page 183: catacylsm " " cataclysm + (if this cataclysm let loose by an act of unutterable) + +Page 232: sorsow " " sorrow + (Alas, yes! I had heard of your sorrow;) + +Page 236: Then " " They + (They need love as much as do the living.) + +Page 247: (section number) 2 " " 3 + (3 All these, on examination, leave but a worthless residuum;) + +Page 305: Breughel " " Brueghel + (painted in the sixteenth century by Pieter Brueghel the Elder.) + +Page 327: missing ending quotes were added + ("You may save your tears! It is not my fault!") + +Other spelling variations, for example, Renascence (pg. 64) and +behoves (pg. 119), have been retained. + + + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Wrack of the Storm, by Maurice Maeterlinck + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WRACK OF THE STORM *** + +***** This file should be named 17861.txt or 17861.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/7/8/6/17861/ + +Produced by Diane Monico and the Project Gutenberg Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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