{"collection":"philosophy-ethics","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_32779/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_32779","id":"gutenberg_32779","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/32779","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Essays, Letters & Speeches","Category: French Literature","Category: History - Modern (1750+)","Category: Philosophy & Ethics","Nobel Prizes in Literature","World War, 1914-1918"],"text":"Chuck Greif and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team\nat http://www.pgdp.net (This book was produced from scanned\nimages of public domain material from the Google Print\nproject.)\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nABOVE THE BATTLE\n\n\n\"The fire smouldering in the forest of Europe was beginning to burst\ninto flames. In vain did they try to put it out in one place; it only\nbroke out in another. With gusts of smoke and a shower of sparks it\nswept from one point to another, burning the dry brushwood. Already in\nthe East there were skirmishes as the prelude to the great war of the\nnations. All Europe, Europe that only yesterday was sceptical and\napathetic, like a dead wood, was swept by the flames. All men were\npossessed by the desire for battle. War was ever on the point of\nbreaking out. It was stamped out, but it sprang to life again. The world\nfelt that it was at the mercy of an accident that might let loose the\ndogs of war. The world lay in wait. The feeling of inevitability weighed\nheavily even upon the most pacifically minded. And ideologues, sheltered\nbeneath the massive shadows of the cyclops, Proudhon, hymned in war\nman's fairest title of nobility....\"\n\n_\"This, then, was to be the end of the physical and moral resurrection\nof the races of the West! To such butchery they were to be borne along\nby the currents of action and passionate faith! Only a Napoleonic genius\ncould have marked out a chosen, deliberate aim for this blind, onward\nrush. But nowhere in Europe was there any genius for action. It was as\nthough the world had chosen the most mediocre to be its governors. The\nforce of the human mind was in other things--so there was nothing to be\ndone but to trust to the declivity down which they were moving. This\nboth the governing and the governed classes were doing. Europe looked\nlike a vast armed camp.\"_\n\n_Jean-Christophe_, vol. x (1912).\n\n[English translation by Gilbert Cannan, vol. iv, p. 504.]\n\n\n\n\nABOVE THE BATTLE\n\nBY\nROMAIN ROLLAND\n\nTRANSLATED BY\nC. K. OGDEN, M. A.\n(Editor of _The Cambridge Magazine_)\n\nCHICAGO\n\nTHE OPEN COURT PUBLISHING COMPANY\n1916\n\n_Copyright 1916_\n\n_The Open Court Pub. Co., Chicago._\n\n_First published in 1916._\n\n(_All rights reserved._)\n\n\n    INTRODUCTION\n    CONTENTS\n    PREFACE\n    NOTES\n    FOOTNOTES\n\n\n\n\nINTRODUCTION\n\n\n    _\"Over the carnage rose prophetic a voice,\n    Be not dishearten'd, affection shall solve the problem of\n      freedom yet._\n\n          *       *       *       *       *\n\n    _(Were you looking to be held together by lawyers?\n    Or by an agreement on a paper? or by arms?\n    Nay, nor the world, nor any living thing, will so cohere.)\"_\n\nThese lines of Walt Whitman will be recalled by many who read the\nfollowing pages: for not only does Rolland himself refer to Whitman in\nhis brief Introduction, but, were it not for a certain _bizarrerie_\napart from their context, the words \"Over the Carnage\" might perhaps\nhave stood on the cover of this volume as a striking variant on\n_Au-dessus de la M\u00eal\u00e9e_.\n\nYet though the voice comes to us over the carnage, its message is not\nmarred by the passions of the moment. After eighteen months of war we\nare learning to look about us more calmly, and to distinguish amid the\nruins those of Europe's intellectual leaders who have not been swept off\ntheir feet by the fury of the tempest. Almost alone Romain Rolland has\nstood the test. The two main characteristics which strike us in all that\nhe writes are lucidity and common sense--the qualities most needed by\nevery one in thought upon the war. But there is another feature of\nRolland's work which contributes to its universal appeal. He describes\nour feelings and sensations in the presence of a given situation, not\nwhat actually passes before our eyes: he describes the effects and\ncauses of things, but not the things themselves. Through his work for\nthe _Agence internationale des prisonniers de guerre_, to which one of\nthe articles now collected is largely devoted, he is, moreover, in a\nposition to observe every phase of the great battle between ideals and\nbetween nations which fills him with such anguish and indignation. And\nwith his matchless insight and sympathy he gives permanent form to our\nvague feelings in these noble and inspiring essays.\n\nIt will not, however, surprise the vast public who have read\n_Jean-Christophe_ to find that while so many have capitulated to the\nmadness of the terrible year through which we have passed, Rolland has\nremained firm, and has surpassed himself. He was prepared. As the\nextract placed at the beginning of this volume shows, he was one of the\nfew who realized only too well the horror he was powerless to prevent.\nYet he made every effort to open the eyes of Europe and especially of\nthe young, so many of whom had learned to look up to him as a leader. To\nthese young men, one of the finest essays in the present collection is\nprimarily addressed--_O jeunesse h\u00e9roique du monde_....\n\nEighteen months have passed and they still endure the terrible ordeal,\nthe young men of Germany and France, whom he had striven so hard to\nbring together; on whose aspirations and failings _Jean-Christophe_ is a\ncritical commentary. The movements and tendencies of society were there\ngiven a dramatic embodiment, permeated for Rolland by the Life\nForce--that struggle between Good and Bad, Love and Hatred, which makes\nlife worth living. All is set down with the clear analysis of feeling\nnatural to a musical critic. But in spite of his burning words on the\ndestruction of Rheims, Rolland, as is clear from his other critical and\nbiographical writings, is more interested in men than in their\nachievements. And the men of today interest him most passionately.\n\"Young men,\" he has said, \"do not bother about the old people. Make a\nstepping-stone of our bodies and go forward.\"\n\nAnd above all it is the permanent things in life with which he is\nconcerned. As Mr. Lowes Dickinson puts it, \"M. Rolland is one of the\nmany who believe, though their voice for the moment may be silenced,\nthat the spiritual forces that are important and ought to prevail are\nthe international ones; that co-operation, not war, is the right destiny\nof nations; and that all that is valuable in each people may be\nmaintained in and by friendly intercourse with the others. The war\nbetween these two ideals is the greater war that lies behind the present\nconflict. Hundreds and thousands of generous youths have gone to battle\nin the belief that they are going to a 'war that will end war,' that\nthey are fighting against militarism in the cause of peace. Whether,\nindeed, it is for that they will have risked or lost their lives, only\nthe event can show.\"\n\nThe forces against such ideals are powerful, but Rolland is not\ndismayed. \"Come, friends! let us make a stand! Can we not resist this\ncontagion, whatever its nature and virulence be--whether moral epidemic\nor cosmic force.\" And he appeals not only in the name of humanity but in\nthe name of that France which he loves so dearly--\"la vraie France\" of\nwhich Jaur\u00e8s wrote (in the untranslatable words which Rolland has\nquoted), \"qui n'est pas r\u00e9sum\u00e9e dans une \u00e9poque et dans un jour, ni dans\nle jour d'il y a des si\u00e8cles, ni dans le jour d'hier, mais la France\ntout enti\u00e8re, dans la succession de ses jours, de ses nuits, de ses\naurores, de ses cr\u00e9puscules, de ses mont\u00e9es, de ses chutes, et qui, \u00e0\ntravers toutes ces ombres m\u00eal\u00e9es, toutes ces lumi\u00e8res incompl\u00e8tes et\ntoutes ces vicissitudes, s'en va vers une pleine clart\u00e9 qu'elle n'a pas\nencore atteinte, mais dont le pressentiment est dans sa pens\u00e9e!\"\n\nBut though his love for France inspires every word that Rolland has\nwritten, the significance of the present volume is not less apparent to\nEnglish readers. Some of the articles and letters now collected have\nalready appeared in English, for the most part in the pages of _The\nCambridge Magazine_, from which they have been widely quoted in the\npress. For help in rendering the translations as adequately as possible\nI may also take this opportunity of acknowledging my special\nindebtedness to Mr. Roger Fry,[1] who has just issued through the Omega\nWorkshops a striking translation of some of the most recent French\npoetry inspired by the war; to Mr. James Wood, who has himself done part\nof the translation, particularly \"pro Aris\"; and to Mr. E. K. Bennett,\nof Caius College, whose version of \"Above the Battle\" has already been\nquoted by the Archbishop of Canterbury and others. For the most part,\nthe articles here collected have not appeared in English before; and\nthey have been almost inaccessible even in French, as their author\nexplains in his Preface.\n\nC. K. OGDEN.\n\nMAGDALENE COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE, _January, 1916_.\n\n\n\n\nCONTENTS.\n\n\nINTRODUCTION BY THE TRANSLATOR                           7\n\nPREFACE                                                 15\n\nI. AN OPEN LETTER TO GERHART HAUPTMANN                  19\n\nII. PRO ARIS                                            23\n\nIII. ABOVE THE BATTLE                                   37\n\nIV. THE LESSER OF TWO EVILS: PANGERMANISM,\nPANSLAVISM                                              56\n\nV. INTER ARMA CARITAS                                   76\n\nVI. TO THE PEOPLE THAT IS SUFFERING FOR JUSTICE         93\n\nVII. LETTER TO MY CRITICS                               97\n\nVIII. THE IDOLS                                        107\n\nIX. FOR EUROPE: MANIFESTO OF THE WRITERS AND\nTHINKERS OF CATALONIA                                  122\n\nX. FOR EUROPE: AN APPEAL FROM HOLLAND TO THE\nINTELLECTUALS OF ALL NATIONS                           127\n\nXI. LETTER TO FREDERIK VAN EEDEN                       136\n\nXII. OUR NEIGHBOR THE ENEMY                            142\n\nXIII. A LETTER TO SVENSKA DAGBLADET OF STOCKHOLM       151\n\nXIV. WAR LITERATURE                                    153\n\nXV. THE MURDER OF THE ELITE                            168\n\nXVI. JAUR\u00c8S                                            181\n\nNOTES                                                  193\n\nINDEX                                                  195\n\nFOOTNOTES\n\nNOTES OF ETEXT TRANSCRIBER\n\n\nIt is my pleasant duty to thank the brave friends who have defended me\nduring the past year, in the Parisian press:--at the end of October\n1914, Am\u00e9d\u00e9e Dunois in _l'Humanit\u00e9_, and Henri Guilbeaux, in the\n_Bataille syndicaliste_; in the same paper, _Fernand Depr\u00e8s_; Georges\nPioch in the _Hommes du Jour_; J. M. Renaitour, in the _Bonnet Rouge_;\nRouanet, in _l'Humanit\u00e9_; Jacques Mesnil, in the _Mercure de France_,\nand Gaston Thiesson, in the _Guerre Sociale_. To these faithful comrades\nin the struggle I express my affectionate gratitude.\n\nR. R.\n\n_October, 1915._\n\n\n\n\nPREFACE\n\n\nA great nation assailed by war has not only its frontiers to protect: it\nmust also protect its good sense. It must protect itself from the\nhallucinations, injustices, and follies which the plague lets loose. To\neach his part: to the armies the protection of the soil of their native\nland; to the thinkers the defense of its thought. If they subordinate\nthat thought to the passions of their people they may well be useful\ninstruments of passion; but they are in danger of betraying the spirit,\nwhich is not the least part of a people's patrimony. One day History\nwill pass judgment on each of the nations at war; she will weigh their\nmeasure of errors, lies, and heinous follies. Let us try and make ours\nlight before her!\n\nChildren are taught the Gospel of Jesus and the Christian ideal.\nEverything in the education they receive at school is designed to\nstimulate in them intellectual understanding of the great human family.\nClassical education makes them see, beyond the differences of race, the\nroots and the common trunk of our civilization. Art makes them love the\nprofound sources of the genius of a people. Science makes them believe\nin the unity of reason. The great social movement which renews the\nworld, reveals the organized effort of the working classes all round\nthem to unite their forces in the hopes and struggles which break the\nbarriers of nations. The brightest geniuses of the earth, like Walt\nWhitman and Tolstoi, chant universal brotherhood in joy and suffering,\nor else like our Latin spirits, pierce with their criticism the\nprejudices of hatred and ignorance which separate individuals and\npeoples.\n\nLike all the men of my time, I have been brought up on these thoughts; I\nhave tried in my turn to share the bread of life with my younger or less\nfortunate brothers. When the war came I did not think it my duty to deny\nthese thoughts because the hour had come to put them to the test.\n\nI have been insulted. I knew that I should be and I went forward. But I\ndid not know that I should be insulted without even a hearing.\n\nFor several months no one in France could know my writings except\nthrough scraps of phrases arbitrarily extracted and mutilated by my\nenemies. It is a shameful record. For nearly a year this has gone on.\nCertain socialist or syndicalist papers may have succeeded here and\nthere in getting some fragments through,[2] but it was only in the month\nof June 1915 that for the first time my chief article, the one which was\nthe object of the most violent criticism, \"Above the Battle,\" dating\nfrom September 1914, could be published in full (almost in full), thanks\nto the malevolent zeal of a maladroit pamphleteer, to whom I am indebted\nfor bringing my words before the French public for the first time.\n\nA Frenchman does not judge his adversary unheard. Whoever does so judges\nand condemns himself: for he shows that he fears the light. I place\nbefore the world the texts they have slandered.[3] I shall not defend\nthem. Let them defend themselves!\n\nOne single word will I add. For a year I have been rich in enemies. Let\nme say this to them: they can hate me, but they will not teach me to\nhate. I have no concern with them. My business is to say what I believe\nto be fair and humane. Whether this pleases or irritates is not my\nbusiness. I know that words once uttered make their way of themselves.\nHopefully I sow them in the bloody soil. The harvest will come.\n\nROMAIN ROLLAND.\n\n_September, 1915._\n\n\n\n\nI. AN OPEN LETTER TO GERHART HAUPTMANN\n\n\n_Saturday, August 29, 1914._[4]\n\nI am not, Gerhart Hauptmann, one of those Frenchmen who regard Germany\nas a nation of barbarians. I know the intellectual and moral greatness\nof your mighty race. I know all that I owe to the thinkers of old\nGermany; and even now, at this hour, I recall the example and the words\nof _our_ Goethe--for he belongs to the whole of humanity--repudiating\nall national hatreds and preserving the calmness of his soul on those\nheights \"_where we feel the happiness and the misfortunes of other\npeoples as our own_.\" I myself have labored all my life to bring\ntogether the minds of our two nations; and the atrocities of this\nimpious war in which, to the ruin of European civilization, they are\ninvolved, will never lead me to soil my spirit with hatred.\n\nWhatever pain, then, your Germany may give me, whatever reasons I may\nhave to stigmatize as criminal German policy and the means it employs, I\ndo not attach responsibility for it to the people which is burdened with\nit and is used as its blind instrument. It is not that I regard, as you\ndo, war as a fatality. A Frenchman does not believe in fatality.\nFatality is the excuse of souls without a will. War springs from the\nweakness and stupidity of nations. One cannot feel resentment against\nthem for it; one can only pity them. I do not reproach you with our\nmiseries; for yours will be no less. If France is ruined, Germany will\nbe ruined too. I did not even raise my voice when I saw your armies\nviolating the neutrality of noble Belgium. This flagrant breach of\nhonor, which incurs the contempt of every upright conscience, is quite\nin the political tradition of your Prussian kings; it did not surprise\nme.\n\nBut when I see the fury with which you are treating that magnanimous\nnation whose only crime has been to defend its independence and the\ncause of justice to the last, as you Germans yourselves did in 1813 ...\nthat is too much! The world is revolted by it. Keep these savageries for\nus Frenchmen, your true enemies! But to wreak them against your\nvictims, against this small, unhappy, innocent Belgian people ... how\nshameful is this!\n\nAnd not content to fling yourselves on living Belgium, you wage war on\nthe dead, on the glories of past ages. You bombard Malines, you burn\nRubens, and Louvain is now no more than a heap of ashes--Louvain with\nits treasures of art and of science, the sacred town! What are you,\nthen, Hauptmann, and by what name do you want us to call you now, since\nyou repudiate the title of barbarians? Are you the grandsons of Goethe\nor of Attila? Are you making war on enemies or on the human spirit? Kill\nmen if you like, but respect masterpieces. They are the patrimony of the\nhuman race. You, like all the rest of us, are its depositories; in\npillaging it, as you do, you show yourselves unworthy of our great\nheritage, unworthy to take your place in that little European army which\nis civilization's guard of honor.\n\nIt is not to the opinion of the rest of the world that I address myself\nin challenging you, Hauptmann. In the name of our Europe, of which you\nhave hitherto been one of the most illustrious champions, in the name of\nthat civilization for which the greatest of men have striven all down\nthe ages, in the name of the very honor of your Germanic race, Gerhart\nHauptmann, I abjure you, I challenge you, you and the intellectuals of\nGermany, amongst whom I reckon so many friends, to protest with all your\nenergy against this crime which is recoiling upon you.\n\nIf you fail to do this, you will prove one of two things: either that\nyou approve what has been done--and in that case may the opinion of\nmankind crush you--or else that you are powerless to raise a protest\nagainst the Huns who command you. If this be so, by what title can you\nstill claim, as you have claimed, that you fight for the cause of\nliberty and human progress? You are giving the world a proof that,\nincapable of defending the liberty of the world, you are even incapable\nof defending your own, and that the best of Germany is helpless beneath\na vile despotism which mutilates masterpieces and murders the spirit of\nman.\n\nI am expecting an answer from you, Hauptmann, an answer that may be an\nact. The opinion of Europe awaits it as I do. Think about it: at such a\ntime silence itself is an act.\n\n_Journal de Gen\u00e8ve_, Wednesday, Sept. 2, 1914.\n\n\n\n\nII. PRO ARIS[5]\n\n\nAmong the many crimes of this infamous war which are all odious to us,\nwhy have we chosen for protest the crimes against things and not against\nmen, the destruction of works and not of lives?\n\nMany are surprised by this, and have even reproached us for it--as if we\nhave not as much pity as they for the bodies and hearts of the thousands\nof victims who are crucified! Yet over the armies which fall, there\nflies the vision of their love, and of _la Patrie_, to which they\nsacrifice themselves--over these lives which are passing away passes the\nholy Ark of the art and thought of centuries, borne on their shoulders.\nThe bearers can change. May the Ark be saved! To the \u00e9lite of the world\nfalls the task of guarding it. And since the common treasure is\nthreatened, may they rise to protect it!\n\nI am glad to think that in the Latin countries this sacred duty has\nalways been regarded as paramount. Our France which bleeds with so many\nother wounds, has suffered nothing more cruel than the attack against\nher Parthenon, the Cathedral of Rheims, \"Our Lady of France.\" Letters\nwhich I have received from sorely tried families, and from soldiers who\nfor two months have borne every hardship, show me (and I am proud of it\nfor them and for my people) that there was no burden heavier for them to\nbear. It is because we put spirit above flesh. Very different is the\ncase of the German intellectuals, who, to my reproaches for the\nsacrilegious acts of their devastating armies, have all replied with one\nvoice, \"Perish every _chef-d'oeuvre_ rather than one German soldier!\"\n\nA piece of architecture like Rheims is much more than one life; it is a\npeople--whose centuries vibrate like a symphony in this organ of stone.\nIt is their memories of joy, of glory, and of grief; their meditations,\nironies, dreams. It is the tree of the race, whose roots plunge to the\nprofoundest depths of its soil, and whose branches stretch with a\nsublime _\u00e9lan_ towards the sky. It is still more: its beauty which soars\nabove the struggles of nations is the harmonious response made by the\nhuman race to the riddle of the world--this light of the spirit more\nnecessary to souls than that of the sun.\n\nWhoever destroys this work, murders more than a man; he murders the\npurest soul of a race. His crime is inexpiable, and Dante would have it\npunished with an eternal agony, eternally renewed. We who repudiate the\nvindictive spirit of so cruel a genius, do not hold a people responsible\nfor the crimes of a few. The drama which unfolds itself before our eyes,\nand whose almost certain _d\u00e9nouement_ will be the crushing of the German\nhegemony, is enough for us.\n\nWhat brings it home to us most nearly is that not one of those who\nconstitute the moral and intellectual \u00e9lite of Germany--that hundred\nnoble spirits, and those thousands of brave hearts of which no great\nnation was ever destitute--not one really suspects the crimes of his\nGovernment; the atrocities committed in Flanders, in the north and in\nthe east of France during the two or three first weeks of the war; or\n(one can safely wager) the voluntary devastations of the towns of\nBelgium and the ruin of Rheims. If they came to look at the reality, I\nknow that many of them would weep with grief and shame; and of all the\nshortcomings of Prussian Imperialism, the worst and the vilest is to\nhave concealed its crimes from its people. For by depriving them of the\nmeans of protesting against those crimes, it has involved them for ever\nin the responsibility; it has abused their magnificent devotion. The\nintellectuals, however, are also guilty. For if one admits that the\nbrave men, who in every country tamely feed upon the news which their\npapers and their leaders give them for nourishment, allow themselves to\nbe duped, one cannot pardon those whose duty it is to seek truth in the\nmidst of error, and to know the value of interested witnesses and\npassionate hallucinations. Before bursting into the midst of this\nfurious debate upon which was staked the destruction of nations and of\nthe treasures of the spirit, their first duty (a duty of loyalty as much\nas of common sense) should have been to consider the problems from both\nsides. By blind loyalty and culpable trustfulness they have rushed head\nforemost into the net which their Imperialism had spread. They believed\nthat their first duty was, with their eyes closed, to defend the honor\nof their State against all accusation. They did not see that the noblest\nmeans of defending it was to disavow its faults and to cleanse their\ncountry of them....\n\nI have awaited this virile disavowal from the proudest spirits of\nGermany, a disavowal which would have been ennobling instead of\nhumiliating. The letter which I wrote to one of them, the day after the\nbrutal voice of Wolff's Agency pompously proclaimed that there remained\nof Louvain no more than a heap of ashes, was received by the entire\n\u00e9lite of Germany in a spirit of enmity. They did not understand that I\noffered them the chance of releasing Germany from the fetters of those\ncrimes which its Empire was forging in its name. What did I ask of them?\nWhat did I ask of you all, finer spirits of Germany?--to express at\nleast a courageous regret for the excesses committed, and to dare to\nremind unbridled power that even the Fatherland cannot save itself\nthrough crime, and that above its rights are those of the human spirit.\nI only asked for _one_ voice--a _single_ free voice.... None spoke. I\nheard only the clamor of herds, the pack of intellectuals giving tongue\non the track whereon the hunter loosed them, and that insolent\nManifesto, in which, without the slightest effort to justify its crimes,\nyou have unanimously declared that they do not exist. And your\ntheologians, your pastors, your court-preachers, have stated further\nthat you are very just and that you thank God for having made you\nthus.... Race of Pharisees, what chastisement from on high shall scourge\nyour sacrilegious pride!... Do you not suspect the evil which you have\ndone to your own people? The megalomania, a menace to the world, of an\nOstwald or an H. S. Chamberlain,[6] the criminal determination of\nninety-three intellectuals not to wish to see the truth, will have cost\nGermany more than ten defeats.\n\nHow clumsy you are! I believe that of all your faults _maladresse_ is\nthe worst. You have not said one word since the beginning of this war\nwhich has not been more fatal for you than all the speeches of your\nadversaries. It is you who have light-heartedly furnished the proof or\nthe argument of the worst accusations that have been brought against\nyou; just as your official agencies, under the stupid illusion of\nterrorizing us, have been the first to launch emphatic recitals of your\nmost sinister devastations. It is you, who when the most impartial of\nyour adversaries were obliged, in fairness, to limit the responsibility\nof these acts to a few of your leaders and armies, have angrily claimed\nyour share. It is you who the day after the destruction of Rheims,\nwhich, in your inmost hearts, should have dismayed the best amongst you,\nhave boasted of it in imbecile pride, instead of trying to clear\nyourselves.[7] It is you, wretched creatures, you, representatives of\nthe spirit, who have not ceased to extol force and to despise the weak,\nas if you did not know that the wheel of fortune turns, that this force\none day will weigh afresh upon you, as in past ages, when your great\nmen, at least, retained the consolation of not having yielded to it the\nsovereignty of the spirit and the sacred rights of Right!... What\nreproaches, what remorse are you heaping up for the future, O blind\nguides--you who are leading into the ditch your nation, which follows\nyou like the stumbling blind men of Brueghel!\n\nWhat poor arguments you have opposed to us for two months!\n\n1. _War is war_, say you, that is to say without common measure with the\nrest of things, above morals and reason and all the limits of ordinary\nlife, a kind of supernatural state before which one can only bow without\ndiscussion;\n\n2. _Germany is Germany_, that is to say without common measure with the\nrest of nations. The laws which apply to others do not apply to her, and\nthe rights which she arrogates to herself to violate Right appertain to\nher alone. Thus she can, without crime, tear up written promises, betray\nsworn oaths, violate the neutrality of peoples which she has pledged\nherself to defend. But she claims in return the right to find, in the\nnations which she outrages, \"chivalrous adversaries,\" and that they\nshould not be so, that they should dare to defend themselves by all the\nmeans and the arms that remain to them, she proclaims a crime!...\n\nOne recognizes there indeed the interested teaching of your Prussian\nmasters! Great minds of Germany, I do not doubt your sincerity, but you\nare no longer capable of seeing the truth. Prussian Imperialism has\ncrushed down over your eyes and conscience, its spiked helmet.\n\n\"_Necessity knows no law._\" ... Here is the eleventh commandment, the\nmessage that you bring to the universe today, sons of Kant!... We have\nheard it more than once in history: it is the famous doctrine of Public\nSafety, mother of heroisms and crimes. Every nation has recourse to it\nin the hour of danger, but the greatest are those who defend against it\ntheir immortal soul. Fifteen years have passed since the famous trial\nwhich saw a single innocent man opposed to the force of the State.\nFifteen years have passed since we French affronted and shattered the\nidol of public safety, when it threatened, as our P\u00e9guy says, \"the\neternal safety of France.\"\n\nListen to him, whom you have killed; listen to a hero of the French\nconscience, writers who have the keeping of the conscience of Germany.\n\n\"_Our enemies of that time_,\" wrote Charles P\u00e9guy, \"_spoke the language\nof the_ raison d'Etat, _of the temporal safety of the people and the\nrace. But we, by a profound Christian movement, by a revolutionary\neffort, at unity with traditional Christianity, aimed at no less than\nattaining the heights of sacrifice, in our anxiety for the eternal\nsalvation of this people. We did not wish to place France in the\nposition of having committed the unpardonable sin._\"\n\nYou do not trouble yourselves about that, thinkers of Germany. You\nbravely give your blood to save the mortal life, but do not bother about\nthe life eternal. It is a terrible moment, I grant. Your fatherland as\nours struggles for its life, and I understand and admire the ecstasy of\nsacrifice which impels your youth, as ours, to make of its body a\nrampart against death. \"To be or not to be,\" do you say? No, that is not\nenough. To be the great Germany, to be the great France, worthy of their\npast, and respecting one another even while fighting, that is what I\nwish. I should blush for victory if my France bought it at the price for\nwhich you will pay for your temporary success. Even while the battles\nare being fought upon the plains of Belgium and amongst the chalky\nslopes of Champagne, another war is taking place upon the field of the\nspirit, and often victory below means defeat above. The conquest of\nBelgium, Malines, Louvain and Rheims, the carillons of Flanders, will\nsound a sadder knell in your history than the bells of Jena; and the\nconquered Belgians have robbed you of your glory. You know it. You are\nenraged because you know it. What is the good of vainly trying to\ndeceive yourselves? Truth will be clear to you in the end. You have done\nyour best to silence her--one day she will speak; she will speak by the\nmouth of one of your own in whom will be awakened the conscience of your\nrace.... Oh, that he may soon appear and that we may hear his voice--the\npure and noble voice of the redeemer who shall set you free! He who has\nlived in the intimacy of your old Germany, who has clasped her hand in\nthe twisted streets of her heroic and sordid past, who has caught the\nbreath of her centuries of trials and shames, remembers and waits: for\nhe knows that even if she has never proved strong enough to bear victory\nwithout wavering, it is in her hours of trouble that she reforms\nherself, and her greatest geniuses are sons of sorrow.\n\n_September 1914._\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nSince these lines were written I have watched the birth of the anxiety\nwhich little by little is making its way into the consciences of the\ngood people of Germany. First a secret doubt, kept under by a stubborn\neffort to believe the bad arguments collected by their Government to\noppose it--documents fabricated to prove that Belgium had renounced her\nneutrality herself, false allegations (in vain repudiated four times by\nthe French Government, by the Commander-in-Chief, by the Cardinal and\nthe Archbishop, and by the Mayor of Rheims)--accusing the French of\nusing the Cathedral of Rheims for military purposes. Lacking arguments,\ntheir system of defense is at times disconcerting in its na\u00efvet\u00e9.\n\n\"Is it possible,\" they say, \"that we should be accused of wishing to\ndestroy artistic monuments, we, the people above all others who venerate\nart, in whom is instilled this respect from infancy, who have the\ngreatest number of text books and historical collections of art and the\nlongest list of lectures on \u00e6sthetics? Is it possible to accuse of the\nmost barbarous actions the most humane, the most affectionate, and the\nmost homely of peoples?\"\n\nThe idea never strikes them that Germany is not constituted by a single\nrace of men, and that besides the obedient masses who are born to obey,\nto respect the law--all the laws--there is the race which commands,\nwhich believes itself above all laws, and which makes and unmakes them\nin the name of force and necessity (_Not_....) It is this evil marriage\nof idealism and German force which leads to these disasters. The\nidealism proves to be a woman; a woman captive, who like so many worthy\nGerman wives, worships her lord and master, and refuses even to think\nthat he could ever be wrong.\n\nIt is, however, necessary for the salvation of Germany that she should\none day countenance the thought of divorce, or that the wife should have\nthe courage to make her voice heard in the household. I already know\nseveral who are beginning to champion the rights of the spirit against\nforce. Many a German voice has reached us lately in letters protesting\nagainst war and deploring with us the injustices which we deplore. I\nwill not give their names in order not to compromise them. Not very\nlong ago I told the \"Fair\"[8] which obstructed Paris that it was not\nFrance. I say today to the German Fair, \"You are not the true Germany.\"\nThere exists another Germany juster and more humane, whose ambition is\nnot to dominate the world by force and guile, but to absorb in peace\neverything great in the thought of other races, and in return to reflect\nthe harmony. With that Germany there is no dispute; we are not her\nenemies, we are the enemies of those who have almost succeeded in making\nthe world forget that she still lives.\n\n_October 1914._\n\nEdition des _Cahiers Vaudois_ 10 cahier, 1914 (Lausanne, C. Tarin).\n\n\n\n\nIII. ABOVE THE BATTLE\n\n\nO young men that shed your blood with so generous a joy for the starving\nearth! O heroism of the world! What a harvest for destruction to reap\nunder this splendid summer sun! Young men of all nations, brought into\nconflict by a common ideal, making enemies of those who should be\nbrothers; all of you, marching to your death, are dear to me.[9] Slavs,\nhastening to the aid of your race; Englishmen fighting for honor and\nright; intrepid Belgians who dared to oppose the Teutonic colossus, and\ndefend against him the Thermopyl\u00e6 of the West; Germans fighting to\ndefend the philosophy and the birthplace of Kant against the Cossack\navalanche; and you, above all, my young compatriots, in whom the\ngeneration of heroes of the Revolution lives again; you, who for years\nhave confided your dreams to me, and now, on the verge of battle, bid\nme a sublime farewell.\n\nThose years of scepticism and gay frivolity in which we in France grew\nup are avenged in you; your faith, which is ours, you protect from their\npoisonous influence; and with you that faith triumphs on the\nbattlefield. \"A war of revenge\" is the cry. Yea! revenge indeed; but in\nno spirit of Chauvinism. The revenge of faith against all the egotisms\nof the senses and of the spirit--the surrender of self to eternal ideas.\n\nOne of the most powerful of the young French novelists--Corporal\nX.--writes to me:--\n\n     \"What are our lives, our books, compared with the magnitude of the\n     aim? The war of the Revolution against feudalism is beginning anew.\n     The armies of the Republic will secure the triumph of democracy in\n     Europe and complete the work of the Convention. We are fighting for\n     more than our hearths and homes, for the awakening of liberty.\"\n     Another of these young people, of noble spirit and pure heart, who\n     will be, if he lives, the first art critic of our time--Lieutenant\n     X.:--\n\n     \"My friend, could you see our Army as I do, you would be thrilled\n     with admiration for our people, for this noble race. An enthusiasm,\n     like an outburst of the Marseillaise, thrills them; heroic,\n     earnest, and even religious. I have seen the three divisions of my\n     army corps set out; the men of active service first, young men of\n     twenty marching with firm and rapid steps, without a cry, without a\n     gesture, like the ephebi of old calmly going to sacrifice. After\n     them come the reserve, men of twenty-five to thirty years, more\n     stalwart and more determined, who will reinforce the younger men\n     and make them irresistible. We, the old men of forty, the fathers\n     of families, are the base of the choir; and we too, I assure you,\n     set out confidently, resolute and unwavering. I have no wish to\n     die, but I can die now without regret; for I have lived through a\n     fortnight, which would be cheap at the price of death, a fortnight\n     which I had not dared to ask of fate. History will tell of us, for\n     we are opening a new era in the world. We are dispelling the\n     nightmare of the materialism of a mailed Germany and of armed\n     peace. It will fade like a phantom before us; the world seems to\n     breathe again. Reassure your Viennese friend,[10] France is not\n     about to die; it is her resurrection which we see. For throughout\n     history--Bouvines, the Crusades, Cathedrals, the Revolution--we\n     remain the same, the knights-errant of the world, the paladins of\n     God. I have lived long enough to see it fulfilled; and we who\n     prophesied it twenty years ago to unbelieving ears may rejoice\n     today.\"\n\nO my friends, may nothing mar your joy! Whatever fate has in store, you\nhave risen to the pinnacle of earthly life, and borne your country with\nyou. And you will be victorious. Your self-sacrifice, your courage, your\nwhole-hearted faith in your sacred cause, and the unshaken certainty\nthat, in defending your invaded country, you are defending the liberty\nof the world--all this assures me of your victory, young armies of the\nMarne and Meuse, whose names are graven henceforth in history by the\nside of your elders of the Great Republic. Yet even had misfortune\ndecreed that you should be vanquished, and with you France itself, no\npeople could have aspired to a more noble death. It would have crowned\nthe life of that great people of the Crusades--it would have been their\nsupreme victory. Conquerors or conquered, living or dead, rejoice! As\none of you said to me, embracing me on the terrible threshold: \"A\nsplendid thing it is to fight with clean hands and a pure heart, and to\ndispense divine justice with one's life.\"\n\nYou are doing your duty, but have others done theirs? Let us be bold and\nproclaim the truth to the elders of these young men, to their moral\nguides, to their religious and secular leaders, to the Churches, the\ngreat thinkers, the leaders of socialism; these living riches, these\ntreasures of heroism you held in your hands; for what are you\nsquandering them? What ideal have you held up to the devotion of these\nyouths so eager to sacrifice themselves? Their mutual slaughter! A\nEuropean war! A sacrilegious conflict which shows a maddened Europe\nascending its funeral pyre, and, like Hercules, destroying itself with\nits own hands!\n\nAnd thus the three greatest nations of the West, the guardians of\ncivilization, rush headlong to their ruin, calling in to their aid\nCossacks, Turks, Japanese, Cingalese, Soudanese, Senegalese, Moroccans,\nEgyptians, Sikhs and Sepoys--barbarians from the poles and those from\nthe equator, souls and bodies of all colors.[11] It is as if the four\nquarters of the Roman Empire at the time of the Tetrarchy had called\nupon the barbarians of the whole universe to devour each other.\n\nIs our civilization so solid that you do not fear to shake the pillars\non which it rests? Can you not see that all falls in upon you if one\ncolumn be shattered? Could you not have learned if not to love one\nanother, at least to tolerate the great virtues and the great vices of\neach other? Was it not your duty to attempt--you have never attempted it\nin sincerity--to settle amicably the questions which divided you, the\nproblem of peoples annexed against their will, the equitable division of\nproductive labor and the riches of the world? Must the stronger forever\ndarken the others with the shadow of his pride, and the others forever\nunite to dissipate it? Is there no end to this bloody and puerile sport,\nin which the partners change about from century to century--no end,\nuntil the whole of humanity is exhausted thereby?\n\nThe rulers who are the criminal authors of these wars dare not accept\nthe responsibility for them. Each one by underhand means seeks to lay\nthe blame at the door of his adversary. The peoples who obey them\nsubmissively resign themselves with the thought that a power higher than\nmankind has ordered it thus. Again the venerable refrain is heard: \"The\nfatality of war is stronger than our wills.\" The old refrain of the herd\nthat makes a god of its feebleness and bows down before him. Man has\ninvented fate, that he may make it responsible for the disorders of the\nuniverse, those disorders which it was his duty to regulate. There is no\nfatality! The only fatality is what we desire; and more often, too, what\nwe do not desire enough. Let each now repeat his _mea culpa_. The\nleaders of thought, the Church, the Labor Parties did not desire war ...\nThat may be.... What then did they do to prevent it? What are they doing\nto put an end to it? They are stirring up the bonfire, each one bringing\nhis faggot.\n\nThe most striking feature in this monstrous epic, the fact without\nprecedent, is the unanimity for war in each of the nations engaged. An\nepidemic of homicidal fury, which started in Tokio ten years ago, has\nspread like a wave and overflowed the whole world. None has resisted it;\nno high thought has succeeded in keeping out of the reach of this\nscourge. A sort of demoniacal irony broods over this conflict of the\nnations, from which, whatever its result, only a mutilated Europe can\nemerge. For it is not racial passion alone which is hurling millions of\nmen blindly one against another, so that not even neutral countries\nremain free of the dangerous thrill, but all the forces of the spirit,\nof reason, of faith, of poetry, and of science, all have placed\nthemselves at the disposal of the armies in every state. There is not\none amongst the leaders of thought in each country who does not proclaim\nwith conviction that the cause of his people is the cause of God, the\ncause of liberty and of human progress. And I, too, proclaim it.\n\nStrange combats are being waged between metaphysicians, poets,\nhistorians--Eucken against Bergson; Hauptmann against Maeterlinck;\nRolland against Hauptmann; Wells against Bernard Shaw. Kipling and\nD'Annunzio, Dehmel and de R\u00e9gnier sing war hymns, Barr\u00e8s and Maeterlinck\nchant paeans of hatred. Between a fugue of Bach and the organ which\nthunders _Deutschland \u00fcber Alles_, Wundt, the aged philosopher of\neighty-two, calls with his quavering voice, the students of Leipzig to\nthe holy war. And each nation hurls at the other the name \"Barbarians.\"\n\nThe academy of moral science, in the person of its president, Bergson,\ndeclares the struggle undertaken against Germany to be \"_the struggle of\ncivilization itself against barbarism_.\" German history replies with the\nvoice of Karl Lamprecht that \"_this is a war between Germanism and\nbarbarism and the present conflict is the logical successor of those\nagainst the Huns and Turks in which Germany has been engaged throughout\nthe ages._\" Science, following history into the lists, proclaims through\nE. Perrier, director of the Museum, member of the Academy of Sciences,\nthat the Prussians do not belong to the Aryan race, but are descended in\ndirect line from the men of the Stone Age called Allophyles, and adds,\n\"_the modern skull, resembling by its base, the best index of the\nstrength of the appetites, the skull of the fossilized man in the\nChapelle-aux-Saints most nearly, is none other than that of Prince\nBismarck!_\"\n\nBut the two moral forces whose weakness this contagious war shows up\nmost clearly are Christianity and Socialism. These rival apostles of\nreligious and secular internationalism have suddenly developed into the\nmost ardent of nationalists. Herv\u00e9 is eager to die for the standard of\nAusterlitz. The German socialists, pure trustees of the pure doctrine,\nsupport this bill of credit for the war in the Reichstag. They place\nthemselves at the disposal of the Prussian minister, who uses their\njournals to spread abroad his lies, even into the barracks, and sends\nthem as secret agents to attempt to pervert Italy. It was believed for\nthe honor of their cause for a moment that two or three of them had been\nshot rather than take arms against their brothers. Indignant, they\nprotest; they are all marching under arms! Liebknecht, forsooth, did not\ndie for the cause of socialism;[12] but Frank, the principal champion of\nthe Franco-German union, fell under French fire, fighting in the cause\nof militarism. These men have courage to die for the faith of others;\nthey have no courage to die for their own.\n\nAs for the representatives of the Prince of Peace--priests, pastors,\nbishops--they go into battle in their thousands, to carry out, musket in\nhand, the Divine commands: _Thou shalt not kill_, and _Love one\nanother_. Each bulletin of victory, whether it be German, Austrian, or\nRussian, gives thanks to the great captain God--_unser alter Gott, notre\nDieu_--as William II or M. Arthur Meyer says. For each has his own God,\nand each God, whether old or young, has his Levites to defend him and\ndestroy the God of the others.\n\nTwenty thousand French priests are marching with the colors; Jesuits\noffer their services to the German armies; cardinals issue warlike\nmandates; and the Serb bishops of Hungary incite their faithful flocks\nto fight against their brothers in Greater Serbia. The newspapers\nreport, with no expressions of astonishment, the paradoxical scene at\nthe railway station at Pisa, where the Italian socialists cheered the\nyoung ordinands who were rejoining their regiments, all singing the\nMarseillaise together. So strong the cyclone that sweeps them all before\nit; so feeble the men it encounters on its career--and I am amongst\nthem....\n\nCome, friends! Let us make a stand! Can we not resist this contagion,\nwhatever its nature and virulence be--whether moral epidemic or cosmic\nforce? Do we not fight against the plague, and strive even to repair the\ndisaster caused by an earthquake? Or must we bow ourselves before it,\nagreeing with Luzzatti in his famous article[13] that \"_In the universal\ndisaster, the nations triumph_\"? Shall we say with him that it is good\nand reasonable that \"the demon of international war, which mows down\nthousands of beings, should be let loose,\" so that the great and simple\ntruth, \"love of our country,\" be understood? It would seem, then, that\nlove of our country can flourish only through the hatred of other\ncountries and the massacre of those who sacrifice themselves in the\ndefense of them. There is in this theory a ferocious absurdity, a\nNeronian dilettantism which repels me to the very depths of my being.\nNo! Love of my country does not demand that I shall hate and slay those\nnoble and faithful souls who also love theirs, but rather that I should\nhonor them and seek to unite with them for our common good.\n\nYou Christians will say--and in this you seek consolation for having\nbetrayed your Master's orders--that war exalts the virtue of sacrifice.\nAnd it is true that war has the privilege of bringing out the genius of\nthe race in the most commonplace of hearts. It purges away, in its bath\nof blood, all dross and impurity; it tempers the metal of the soul of a\nniggardly peasant, of a timorous citizen; it can make a hero of Valmy.\nBut is there no better employment for the devotion of one people than\nthe devastation of another? Can we not sacrifice ourselves without\nsacrificing our neighbors also? I know well, poor souls, that many of\nyou are more willing to offer your blood than to spill that of\nothers.... But what a fundamental weakness! Confess, then, that you who\nare undismayed by bullets and shrapnel yet tremble before the dictates\nof racial frenzy--that Moloch that stands higher than the Church of\nChrist--the jealous pride of race. You Christians of today would not\nhave refused to sacrifice to the gods of Imperial Rome; you are not\ncapable of such courage! Your Pope Pius X died of grief to see the\noutbreak of this war--so it is said. And not without reason. The Jupiter\nof the Vatican who hurled thunderbolts upon those inoffensive priests\nwho believed in the noble chimera of modernism--what did he do against\nthose princes and those criminal rulers whose measureless ambition has\ngiven the world over to misery and death? May God inspire the new\nPontiff who has just ascended the throne of St. Peter, with words and\ndeeds which will cleanse the Church from the stain of this silence.\n\nAs for you socialists who on both sides claim to be defending liberty\nagainst tyranny--French liberty against the Kaiser, German liberty\nagainst the Czar, is it a question of defending one despotism against\nanother? Unite and attack both.\n\nThere was no reason for war between the Western nations; French,\nEnglish, and German, we are all brothers and do not hate one another.\nThe war-preaching press is envenomed by a minority, a minority vitally\ninterested in maintaining these hatreds; but our peoples, I know, ask\nfor peace and liberty and that alone. The real tragedy, to one situated\nin the midst of the conflict and able to look down from the high\nplateaus of Switzerland into all the hostile camps, is the patent fact\nthat actually each of the nations is being menaced in its dearest\npossessions--in its honor, its independence, its life. Who has brought\nthese plagues upon them? Brought them to the desperate alternative of\noverwhelming their adversary or dying? None other than their\ngovernments, and above all, in my opinion, the three great culprits, the\nthree rapacious eagles, the three empires, the tortuous policy of the\nhouse of Austria, the ravenous greed of Czarism, the brutality of\nPrussia. The worst enemy of each nation is not without, but within its\nfrontiers, and none has the courage to fight against it. It is the\nmonster of a hundred heads, the monster named Imperialism, the will to\npride and domination, which seeks to absorb all, or subdue all, or break\nall, and will suffer no greatness except itself. For the Western nations\nPrussian imperialism is the most dangerous. Its hand uplifted in menace\nagainst Europe has forced us to join in arms against this outcome of a\nmilitary and feudal caste, which is the curse not only of the rest of\nthe world but also of Germany itself, whose thought it has subtly\npoisoned. We must destroy this first: but not this alone; the Russian\nautocracy too will have its turn. Every nation to a greater or less\nextent has an imperialism of its own, and whether it be military,\nfinancial, feudal, republican, social, or intellectual, it is always the\noctopus sucking the best blood of Europe. Let the free men of all the\ncountries of Europe when this war is over take up again the motto of\nVoltaire: \"_Ecrasons l'inf\u00e2me!_\"\n\nWhen the war is over! The evil is done now, the torrent let loose and we\ncannot force it back into its channel unaided. Moreover crimes have been\ncommitted against right, attacks on the liberties of peoples and on the\nsacred treasuries of thought, which must and will be expiated. Europe\ncannot pass over unheeded the violence done to the noble Belgian people,\nthe devastation of Malines and Louvain, sacked by modern Tillys.... But\nin the name of heaven let not these crimes be expiated by similar\ncrimes! Let not the hideous words \"vengeance\" and \"retaliation\" be\nheard; for a great nation does not revenge itself, it re-establishes\njustice. But let those in whose hands lies the execution of justice show\nthemselves worthy of her to the end.\n\nIt is our duty to keep this before them; nor will we be passive and wait\nfor the fury of this conflict to spend itself. Such conduct would be\nunworthy of us who have such a task before us.\n\nOur first duty, then, all over the world, is to insist on the formation\nof a moral High Court, a tribunal of consciences, to watch and pass\nimpartial judgment on any violations of the laws of nations. And since\ncommittees of inquiry formed by belligerents themselves would be always\nsuspect, the neutral countries of the old and new world must take the\ninitiative, and form a tribunal such as was suggested by Mr.\nPrenant,[14] professor of medicine at Paris, and taken up\nenthusiastically by M. Paul Seippel in the _Journal de Gen\u00e8ve_.[15]\n\n\"They should produce men of some worldly authority, and of proved civic\nmorality to act as a commission of inquiry, and to follow the armies at\na little distance. Such an organization would complete and solidify the\nHague Court, and prepare indisputable documents for the necessary work\nof justice....\"\n\nThe neutral countries are too much effaced. Confronted by unbridled\nforce they are inclined to believe that opinion is defeated in advance,\nand the majority of thinkers in all countries share their pessimism.\nThere is a lack of courage here as well as of clear thinking. For just\nat this time the power of opinion is immense. The most despotic of\ngovernments, even though marching to victory, trembles before public\nopinion and seeks to court it. Nothing shows this more clearly than the\nefforts of both parties engaged in war, of their ministers, chancellors,\nsovereigns, of the Kaiser himself turned journalist, to justify their\nown crimes, and denounce the crimes of their adversary at the invisible\ntribunal of humanity. Let this invisible tribunal be seen at last, let\nus venture to constitute it. Ye know not your moral power, O ye of\nlittle faith! If there be a risk, will you not take it for the honor of\nhumanity? What is the value of life when you have saved it at the price\nof all that is worth living for?...\n\n_Et propter vitam, vivendi perdere causas_....\n\nBut for us, the artists and poets, priests and thinkers of all\ncountries, remains another task. Even in time of war it remains a crime\nfor finer spirits to compromise the integrity of their thought; it is\nshameful to see it serving the passion of a puerile, monstrous policy of\nrace, a policy scientifically absurd--since no country possesses a race\nwholly pure. Such a policy, as Renan points out in his beautiful letter\nto Strauss,[16] \"_can only lead to zoological wars, wars of\nextermination, similar to those in which various species of rodents and\ncarnivorous beasts fight for their existence. This would be the end of\nthat fertile admixture called humanity, composed as it is of such\nvarious necessary elements._\" Humanity is a symphony of great collective\nsouls; and he who understands and loves it only by destroying a part of\nthose elements, proves himself a barbarian and shows his idea of harmony\nto be no better than the idea of order another held in Warsaw.\n\nFor the finer spirits of Europe there are two dwelling-places: our\nearthly fatherland, and that other City of God. Of the one we are the\nguests, of the other the builders. To the one let us give our lives and\nour faithful hearts; but neither family, friend, nor fatherland, nor\naught that we love has power over the spirit. The spirit is the light.\nIt is our duty to lift it above tempests, and thrust aside the clouds\nwhich threaten to obscure it; to build higher and stronger, dominating\nthe injustice and hatred of nations, the walls of that city wherein the\nsouls of the whole world may assemble.\n\nI feel here how the generous heart of Switzerland is thrilled, divided\nbetween sympathies for the various nations, and lamenting that it cannot\nchoose freely between them, nor even express them. I understand its\ntorment; but I know that this is salutary. I hope it will rise thence to\nthat superior joy of a harmony of races, which may be a noble example\nfor the rest of Europe. It is the duty of Switzerland now to stand in\nthe midst of the tempest, like an island of justice and of peace, where,\nas in the great monasteries of the early Middle Ages, the spirit may\nfind a refuge from unbridled force; where the fainting swimmers of all\nnations, those who are weary of hatred, may persist, in spite of all the\nwrongs they have seen and suffered, in loving all men as their brothers.\n\nI know that such thoughts have little chance of being heard today. Young\nEurope, burning with the fever of battle, will smile with disdain and\nshow its fangs like a young wolf. But when the access of fever has spent\nitself, wounded and less proud of its voracious heroism, it will come to\nitself again.\n\nMoreover I do not speak to convince it. I speak but to solace my\nconscience ... and I know that at the same time I shall solace the\nhearts of thousands of others who, in all countries, cannot or dare not\nspeak themselves.\n\n_Journal de Gen\u00e8ve_, September 15, 1914.\n\n\n\n\nIV. THE LESSER OF TWO EVILS: PANGERMANISM, PANSLAVISM\n\n\nI do not hold the doctrine expounded by a certain saintly king, that it\nis useless to enter into discussion with heretics--and we regard all\nthose who do not agree with our opinions as heretics nowadays--but that\nit is sufficient to brain them. I feel the need of understanding my\nenemy's reasons. I am unwilling to believe in unfairness. Doubtless my\nenemy is as passionately sincere as I am. Why, then, should we not\nattempt to understand each other? For such an understanding, though it\nwill not suppress the conflict, may perhaps suppress our hatred; and it\nis hatred more than anything else that I regard as my enemy.\n\nHowever much I may feel that the motives actuating the various\ncombatants are not equally worthy, I have yet come to the conviction,\nafter reading the papers and letters which, during the last two months,\nhave arrived in Geneva from every country, that the ardor of patriotic\nfaith is everywhere the same, and that each of the nations engaged in\nthis mighty struggle believes itself to be the champion of liberty\nagainst barbarism. But liberty and barbarism do not mean the same thing\nto both sides.\n\nBarbarous despotism, the worst enemy to liberty, is exemplified for us\nFrenchmen, Englishmen, men of the West, in Prussian Imperialism; and I\nventure to think that the register of its methods is plainly set forth\nin the devastated route from Li\u00e8ge to Senlis, passing by way of Louvain,\nMalines, and Rheims. For Germany, the monster (\"_Ungeheuer_,\" as the\naged Wundt calls it), which threatens civilization is Russia, and the\nbitterest reproach which the Germans hurl against France is our alliance\nwith the Empire of the Czar. I have received many letters reproaching us\nwith this. In the Munich review, _Das Forum_, I read only yesterday an\narticle by Wilhelm Herzog challenging me to explain my position with\nregard to Russia. Let us consider the question, then. I ask nothing\nbetter. By this means we shall be able to weigh the German danger and\nthe Russian danger in the balance, and thus show which of the two seems\nthe more threatening to us. Of the actual events of the present war\nbetween Germany and Russia I will say nothing. All the information we\nhave comes from Russian or German sources, equally unreliable. To judge\nby them it would appear that the same ferocity exists in both camps. The\nGermans in Kalish were worthy companions of the Cossacks in Grodtken and\nZorothowo.--It is of the German spirit and of the Russian spirit that I\nwish to speak here, for this is the important thing and of this we have\nmore definite knowledge.\n\nYou, my German friends--for those of you who were my friends in the past\nremain my friends in spite of fanatical demands from both sides that we\nshould break off all relations--know how much I love the Germany of the\npast, and all that I owe to it. Not less than you, yourselves, I am the\nson of Beethoven, of Leibnitz, and of Goethe. But what do I owe to the\nGermany of today, or what does Europe owe to it? What art have you\nproduced since the monumental work of Wagner, which marks the end of an\nepoch and belongs to the past? What new and original thought can you\nboast of since the death of Nietzsche, whose magnificent madness has\nleft its traces upon you though we are unscathed by it? Where have we\nsought our spiritual food for the last forty years, when our own fertile\nsoil no longer yielded sufficient for our needs? Who but the Russian\nwriters have been our guides? What German writer can you set up against\nTolstoi and Dostoievsky, those giants of poetic genius and moral\ngrandeur? These are the men who have moulded my soul, and in defending\nthe nation from which they sprang, I am but paying a debt which I owe to\nthat nation as well as to themselves. Even if the contempt for Prussian\nImperialism were not innate in me as a Latin, I should have learned it\nfrom them. Twenty years ago Tolstoi expressed his contempt for your\nKaiser. In music, Germany, so proud of its ancient glory, has only the\nsuccessors of Wagner, neurotic jugglers with orchestral effects, like\nRichard Strauss, but not a single sober and virile work of the quality\nof _Boris Godunov_. No German musician has opened up new roads. A single\npage of Moussorgsky or Strawinsky shows more originality, more potential\ngreatness than the complete scores of Mahler and Reger. In our\nUniversities, in our hospitals and Pasteur Institutes, Russian students\nand scholars work side by side with our own, and Russian\nrevolutionaries who have taken refuge in Paris mingle their aspirations\nwith those of our socialists.\n\nThe crimes of Czarism are continually on your lips. We, too, denounce\nthese crimes; for Czarism is our enemy, and what I wrote but recently, I\nrepeat now. But it is likewise the enemy of the intellectual \u00e9lite of\nRussia itself. This cannot be said of your intellectuals, who are so\nslavishly obedient to the commands of your rulers. A few days ago I\nreceived that amazing \"Address to the Civilized Nations\" with which the\nImperial army-corps of German intellectuals bombarded Europe; meanwhile\nthe army-corps of German Commerce (_Bureau des Deutschen Handelstages_)\nshelled the markets of the world with circulars ornamented by the figure\nof Mercury, the god of lies. This mobilization of the forces of the pen\nand of the caduceus, with which in good truth no other country could\ncompete, has given us additional reason to fear the Empire's powers of\norganization, no reason to respect it more. \"Civilized Nations\" read,\nnot without amazement, that Address, the truth of which was vouched for\nby the names of the most distinguished scientists, thinkers, and artists\nin Germany--by Behring, Ostwald, Roentgen, Eucken, Haeckel, Wundt,\nDehmel, Hauptmann, Sudermann, Hildebrand, Klinger, Liebermann,\nHumperdinck, Weingartner, etc.--by painters and philosophers, musicians,\ntheologians, chemists, economists, poets, and the professors of twenty\nuniversities. They learned, not without surprise, that \"it is not true\nthat Germany provoked the war,--it is not true that Germany criminally\nviolated the neutrality of Belgium,--it is not true that Germany used\nviolence against the life or the belongings of a single Belgian citizen\nwithout being forced to do so,--it is not true that Germany destroyed\nLouvain\" (destroyed it? no indeed, she saved it!),--\"it is not true that\nGermany----\" It is not true that day is day and night is night! I\nconfess that I could not read to the end without that feeling of\nembarrassment which I felt as a child, when I heard an elderly man whom\nI respected make false statements. I turned aside my eyes and blushed\nfor him. Thank God! the crimes of Czarism never found a defender amongst\nthe great artists, scholars, and thinkers of Russia. Are not Kropotkin,\nTolstoi, Dostoievsky, and Gorki, the greatest names in its literature,\nthe very ones who denounced its crimes!\n\nRussian domination has often been cruelly heavy for the smaller\nnationalities which it has swallowed up. But how comes it then, Germans,\nthat the Poles prefer it to yours? Do you imagine that Europe is\nignorant of the monstrous way in which you are exterminating the Polish\nrace? Do you think that we do not receive the confidences of those\nBaltic nations who, having to choose between two conquerors, prefer the\nRussian because he is the more humane? Read the following letter which I\nreceived but lately from a Lett, who, though he has suffered severely at\nthe hands of the Russians, yet sides ardently with them against you. My\nGerman friends, you are either strangely ignorant of the state of mind\nof the nations which surround you, or you think us extremely simple and\nill-informed. Your imperialism, beneath its veneer of civilization,\nseems to me no less ferocious than Czarism towards everything that\nventures to oppose its avaricious desire for universal dominion. But\nwhereas immense and mysterious Russia, overflowing with young and\nrevolutionary forces, gives us hope of a coming renewal, your Germany\nbases its systematic harshness on a culture too antiquated and\nscholastic to allow of any hope of amendment. If I had any such\nhope--and I once had it, my friends--you have taken great pains to rob\nme of it, you, artists and scholars, who drew up that address in which\nyou pride yourself on your complete unity with Prussian Imperialism.\nKnow once for all that there is nothing more overwhelming for us Latins,\nnothing more difficult to endure, than your militarization of the\nintellect. If, by some awful fate, this spirit were triumphant, I should\nleave Europe for ever. To live here would be intolerable to me.\n\nHere, then, are some extracts from the interesting letter which I have\nreceived from a representative of those little nationalities which are\nbeing disputed between Russia and Germany. They desire to maintain their\nindependence, but find themselves obliged to choose between these two\nnations, and choose Russia. It is good to hear them speak. We are too\nmuch inclined to listen only to the Great Powers who are now at war. Let\nus think of those little barques which the great vessels draw in their\nwake. Let us share for a moment the agony with which these little\nnationalities, forgotten by the egotism of Europe, await the final issue\nof a struggle which will decide their fate. Let England and France heed\nthose beseeching eyes which are turned towards them; let young Russia,\nherself so eager for liberty, help generously to shed its benefits\nabroad.\n\n_October 10, 1914._\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nLETTER TO ROMAIN ROLLAND\n\n_30th September, 1914._\n\nSIR:--I desire to thank you for your article, \"Above the Battle.\"...\nAlthough by my education I am more akin to the civilizations of Germany\nand Russia than to the civilization of France, yet I respect the French\nspirit more, for I am convinced, more than ever today, that it will\nfurnish the greatly needed solution of the problems of national rights\nand liberty.\n\nIn your article you quote the words of one of your friends, a soldier\nand a writer, who says that the French are fighting not only to defend\ntheir own country but to save the _liberty of the world_. You can hardly\nimagine how such words re-echo in the hearts of oppressed nations, what\nstreams of sympathy are today converging from all corners of Europe upon\nFrance, what hopes depend upon your victory.\n\nAnd yet many doubts have been expressed with regard to these French and\nEnglish assertions because both nations have allied themselves with\nRussia, whose policy is contrary to the ideas of right and liberty; and\nGermany herself maintains that it is precisely those ideas for which she\nis fighting against Russia.\n\nIt would be interesting to discover what German writers and professors\nreally mean when they speak of a Holy War against Russia. Do they wish\nto assist Russian revolutionaries to dethrone the Czar?--Every\nrevolutionary party would refuse indignantly to accept assistance from\nPrussian militarism. Do they wish to set free the neighboring countries,\nsuch as Poland, which are oppressed by Russia, by incorporating them\nwith the German Empire?--It is well known that the Poles who are German\nsubjects have suffered much more ignoble treatment than the Russian\nPoles, though even they have every reason to complain.\n\nThe Baltic provinces of Russia alone remain, and here the Germans have\nfor centuries had their pioneers among the large landowners and the\nmerchants in the bigger towns. These, no doubt, Russian subjects but of\nGerman nationality, would welcome the German armies with enthusiasm. But\nthey form only a caste of nobles and of the wealthy middle-classes,\nnumbering at most a few thousands, whereas the bulk of the population,\nthe Lettish and Esthonian nations, would regard the absorption of these\nprovinces into Germany as the worst of calamities. We know well what\nGerman domination means. I am a Lett and can speak with authority, for I\nknow the deepest feelings and hopes of my own countrymen.\n\nThe Letts are akin to the Lithuanians. They inhabit Courland, Livonia,\nand a part of the province of Vitebsk. Their intellectual center is\nRiga. There are colonies of them in all the principal towns of Russia.\nLast year the _Annales des Nationalit\u00e9s_ of Paris devoted two numbers to\nthese two sister nations. Owing to the geographical situation of their\ncountry, which is only too desirable, they had the misfortune to be\nunder the yoke of the Germans, before they were under the yoke of the\nRussians. To understand how much they suffered under the former it will\nbe sufficient to say that, in comparison with the Germans, we think of\nthe Russians as our liberators. By sheer force the Germans kept us for\ncenturies in a state equivalent to slavery. Only fifty years ago the\nRussian Government set us free from this bondage; but, at the same\ntime, it committed the grave injustice of leaving all our land in the\nhands of German proprietors. Nevertheless, within the last twenty or\nthirty years, we have succeeded in reclaiming from the Germans a part at\nleast of our land, and in reaching a considerable level of culture,\nthanks to which, we are considered, together with the Esthonians and the\nFinns, as the most advanced people in the Russian Empire.\n\nGerman papers often accuse us of ingratitude, and reproach us with our\nlack of appreciation of the advantages of the culture which they boast\nof having brought us. We listen to such accusations with a bitter smile,\nand in writing the word _Kulturtr\u00e4ger_ (bearer of civilization) add an\nexclamation mark afterwards, for the behavior of the Germans has brought\nthe expression into contempt. We have acquired our culture in spite of\ntheir opposition, and against their will. _Even today it is the German\nrepresentatives in the Russian Duma who veto the occasional suggestions\non the part of the Government to make reforms in the Baltic provinces._\nThese provinces are administered in a manner that differs, and differs\nfor the worse, from that adopted in the other provinces of Russia. We\nstill submit to laws and regulations which no longer exist in other\nparts of Europe--laws which were made in the feudal ages and have been\nrigorously maintained amongst us, thanks to the exertions of the big\nGerman landowners, who are always sure of a hearing at the Imperial\nCourt of St. Petersburg.\n\nFormerly, when we were striving in vain to reconcile our sympathy and\nadmiration for German thought and art with the narrow, haughty, and\ncruel spirit of its representatives amongst us, we explained it all by\nsaying that the Germans in our provinces were of a peculiar type, and\nhad little in common with other Germans. But the crimes of which they\nhave been guilty in Belgium and in France show us our mistake. Germans\nare the same everywhere in the work of conquest and domination--wholly\nwithout humanitarian scruples. In Germany, as in Russia, there are two\ndistinct tendencies--the one, provoked by the ideas of Pangermanism and\nPanslavism, is to seek national glory on the field of battle and in the\noppression of the personalities of other nations; the other is to\nachieve the same end in the peaceful realms of thought and artistic\ncreation. Just as the culture of which Goethe was typical has nothing\nin common with Prussian militarism, so Tolstoi may be considered as the\nrepresentative of that other Russia which is so different from the one\nrepresented by the Russian Government of today. Certainly the gulf\nbetween these two tendencies is less deep in Germany than in Russia, and\nthis is due to the immense size of Russia, which contains vast numbers\nof poor and ignorant human beings whom the Russian Government oppresses\nwith the utmost brutality. _But it is entirely unjust always to allude\nto the Russians as barbarians; and the Germans who invariably make use\nof this word when they speak of Russia have less right than any one to\ndo so._ No one who knows the intellectual world of Germany and Russia\nwill venture to say that the former is much superior to the latter--they\nare simply different. _And I would add that the one fact which makes us\nfeel more drawn to the intellectual world of Russia than to that of the\nGermany of today, is that it would never be capable of justifying and\napproving the brutal conduct of its Government, as the German\nintellectuals are doing now. It has often been constrained to keep\nsilence, but it has never raised its voice in defense of a guilty\nGovernment._\n\nLet not my testimony in favor of the Russians lead any one to believe\nthat I am idealizing them, or that my people, the Letts, have enjoyed\nany special privileges under their government. On the contrary! I have\nsuffered more at their hands than at the hands of the Germans, and my\nnation knows only too well how heavy is the hand of the Russian\nGovernment, and how suffocating the atmosphere of Panslavism. In 1906 it\nwas the Lett peasant and intellectual classes who enjoyed most\nfrequently the privilege of being flogged; it was amongst these classes\nthat the greatest number of unfortunates were shot, hanged, or\nimprisoned for life. And since that dreadful year there are to be found\nin all the principal towns of Western Europe colonies of Letts, formed\nof refugees who succeeded in escaping from the atrocities of the\npunitive expedition sent by the Russian Government against my country.\nBut this fact is significant: _at the head of the majority of the\nmilitary bands commissioned to punish the country were German officers\nwho had asked for this employment, and showed so great a zeal in\nshooting down men and setting fire to houses, that they went even beyond\nthe intentions of the Russian Government. In those days the places\nmight count themselves fortunate which were visited by dragoons\ncommanded by officers of Russian nationality; for where Russian officers\nwould have ordered the knout, German officers habitually inflicted a\nsentence of death._\n\nIf my nation had ever to choose between a German and a Russian\ngovernment it would choose the latter as the lesser of two evils. I see\nin the Lett newspapers that the reservists of my country left for the\nwar with enthusiasm. I do not imagine that this enthusiasm is due to the\nthought that they are fighting for the glory of a nation which, by every\nmeans in its power, seeks to hinder our national development, by\nforbidding instruction in our native tongue in primary schools, by\nattempting to colonize our land with Russian peasants, by compelling our\nown people to emigrate to Siberia and America, by excluding all Letts\nfrom any share in Government employment, etc. This enthusiasm\nnevertheless exists, and it is because the war is being waged against\nGermany, and because the Letts know that the Germans have long been\naiming at the possession of the Baltic provinces. To prevent this we are\nprepared to make any sacrifice. We, who love our national civilization\nand know well what Panslavism and Pangermanism mean, are of opinion\nthat, of the two, Panslavism is less fatal to the civilizations of small\nnations. This is really due to the character of the two races.\n\n_German oppression is always systematic, hence always efficacious. In\naddition to this, their arrogant contempt for everything that is not\nthemselves, the calm and calculated method in which they carry out their\nsystem of persecution wherever they dominate, all this makes them\nintolerable._\n\n_Russians are less logical by nature; their minds are not so regulated\nand they are more inclined to obey the dictates of their hearts; for\nthis reason they are less to be feared as oppressors. The blows which\nthey strike are often extremely cruel and painful, but they can repent\nfrom time to time. Their manners are rougher and more brutal_ (I speak\nhere more especially of civil and military officials), _but on the whole\nthey are more humane than the Germans, who often conceal feelings of\nfierce savagery under the mask of perfect courtesy. In the year 1906,\nwhen there were executions in Russia on a large scale, there were many\ncases of suicide amongst Russian officers who could not reconcile their\nprofession of soldiers with that of a hangman. The officers of German\nnationality, on the other hand, carried out their orders with\nenjoyment._\n\nNevertheless Russian domination, though preferable to German, is still\nvery oppressive. I hear the news of Russian victories with mingled\nfeelings, rejoicing in so far as they are victories for the Allies, yet\ndreading the triumph of Russia. After the defeats of the Russo-Japanese\nWar, when the Russian Government was weakened, it conceded certain\nliberal measures and then revoked them almost entirely as its strength\nreturned. What have we to expect from a victory for Czarism, especially\nwe who are not Russians, but a savage revival of the crushing ideals of\nPanslavism?\n\nThis is the agonized question which the nations subject to Russia are\nasking now. I read in your article that the turn of Czarism will come\nafter that of Prussianism. In what sense is this to be understood? Is it\nyour opinion that another war will presently break out against Czarism,\nor will it be struck down by the blows of an internal revolution? Is it\neven possible that France and England obtained the promise of a reform\nin the internal politics of Russia before allying themselves with her?\nAnd is the proclamation to the Poles evidence of this? Will it have any\nreal effect after the war? And those other nations oppressed by\nRussia--the Finns, the Letts, the Lithuanians, the Esthonians, the\nArmenians, the Jews...--will they too have justice done them?\n\nThese questions are probably devoid of any political significance. Yet\nwithout perceiving in what manner France and England can set us free, we\ndo direct our hopes towards them. We believe that in some way or other\nthey will take care in future that their Russian ally shall show herself\nworthy of them and of the ideas for which they are fighting, lest the\nblood of those who have died in the cause of freedom go to feed the\nstrength of the oppressors.\n\nThus, sir, I have ventured uninvited to set forth rather fully to you\nthe hopes and fears of a nation which has developed itself on a narrow\nstrip of land between the two abysses of Pangermanism and Panslavism.\nWhilst ardently desiring the destruction of the former, we have\neverything to fear from the latter. Yet we do not aspire to political\nindependence. We seek only the possibility of developing freely our\nintellectual, artistic, and economic powers, without the perpetual\nmenace of being absorbed by Russia or Germany. We believe that, in\nvirtue of the civilization we have acquired in the face of obstacles, we\nare worthy of the liberties and rights of man; we are convinced that as\na nation we have qualities which will fit us to play a valuable part in\nthe great symphony of civilized peoples.\n\n_Journal de Gen\u00e8ve_, October 10, 1914.\n\n\n\n\nV. INTER ARMA CARITAS\n\n\nOnce more I address myself to our friends the enemy. But this time I\nshall attempt no discussion, for discussion is impossible with those who\navow that they do not seek for but possess the truth. For the moment\nthere is no spiritual force that can pierce the thick wall of certitude\nby which Germany is barricaded against the light of day--the terrible\ncertitude, the pharisaical satisfaction which pervades the monstrous\nletter of a Court preacher who glorifies God for having made him\nimpeccable, irreproachable, and pure, himself, his emperor, his\nministers, his army, and his race; and who rejoices beforehand in his\n\"holy wrath\" at the destruction of all who do not think as he\nthinks.[17]\n\nTrue, I am very far from thinking that this monument of anti-Christian\npride represents the spirit of the better part of Germany. I know how\nmany noble hearts, moderate, affectionate, incapable of doing evil and\nalmost of conceiving it, go to make up her moral strength; amongst them\nare friends that I shall never cease to esteem. I know how many intrepid\nminds work ceaselessly in German science for the conquest of the truth.\nBut I see on the one hand these good people so over-confident, so\ntractable, with their eyes shut, ignorant of the facts and unwilling to\nrecognize anything but what it is the pleasure of their Government that\nthey shall know; and on the other, the clearest minds of Germany,\nhistorians and savants, trained for the criticism of texts, basing their\nconviction on documents which all emanate from one alone of the parties\nconcerned, and by way of peremptory proof referring us to the _ex-parte_\naffirmations of their Emperor, and of their Chancellor, like\nwell-behaved scholars, whose only argument is _Magister dixit_. What\nhope remains of convincing such people that there exists a truth beyond\nthat master, and that in addition to his White Book we have in our hands\nbooks of every kind and of every color, whose testimony demands the\nattention of an impartial judge? But do they so much as know of their\nexistence, and does the master allow his class to handle the manuals of\nhis enemies? Our disagreement is not only as regards the facts of the\ncase; it is due to difference in mind itself. Between the spirit of\nGermany today and that of the rest of Europe there is no longer a point\nof contact. We speak to them of _Humanity_; they reply with\n_Uebermensch_, _Uebervolk_, and it goes without saying that they\nthemselves are the Uebervolk. Germany seems to be overcome by a morbid\nexaltation, a collective madness, for which there is no remedy but time.\nAccording to the view of medical experts in analogous cases such forms\nof madness develop rapidly, and are suddenly followed by profound\ndepression. We can then but wait, and in the meantime defend ourselves\nto the best of our ability from the madness of Ajax.\n\nCertainly Ajax has given us plenty of work to do. Look at the ruins\naround us! We may bring aid to the victims--yet how little can we\nachieve? In the eternal struggle between good and evil the scales are\nnot evenly balanced. We need a century to re-create what one day can\ndestroy. The fury of madness, on the other hand, endures only for a day;\npatient labor is our lot throughout the years. It knows no pause, even\nin those hours when the world seems at an end. The vine-growers of\nChampagne gather in their vintage though the bombs of the rival armies\nexplode around them--and we, too, can do our share! There is work for\nall who find themselves outside the battle. Especially for those who\nstill can write, it seems to me that there should be something better to\ndo than to brandish a pen dipped in blood and seated at their tables to\ncry \"Kill! Kill!\" I hate the war, but even more do I hate those who\nglorify it without taking part. What would we say of officers who\nmarched behind their men? The noblest r\u00f4le of those who follow in the\nrear is to pick up their friends who fall, and to bear in mind even\nduring the battle those fair words so often forgotten--_Inter arma\ncaritas_.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nAmidst all the misery which every man of feeling can do his share to\nrelieve, let us recall the fate of the prisoner of war. But knowing that\nGermany today blushes at her former sentimentality, I carefully refrain\nfrom appealing to her pity by whinings, as they call them, about the\ndestruction of Louvain and Rheims. \"War is war.\" Granted!--then it is\nnatural that it drags in its train thousands of prisoners, officers and\nmen.\n\nFor the moment I shall say only a word about these, in order to comfort\nas far as possible the families who are searching for them, and are so\nanxious about their fate. On both sides hateful rumors circulate only\ntoo easily, rumors given currency by an unscrupulous press, rumors which\nwould have us believe that the most elementary laws of humanity are\ntrampled under foot by the enemy. Only the other day an Austrian friend\nwrote to me, maddened by the lies of some paper or other, to beg me to\nhelp the German wounded in France, who are left without any aid. And\nhave I not heard or read the same unworthy fears expressed by Frenchmen\nas regards their wounded, who are said to be maltreated in Germany? But\nit is all a lie--on both sides; and those of us whose task it is to\nreceive the true information from either camp must affirm the contrary.\nSpeaking generally (for in so many thousands of cases one cannot, of\ncourse, be sure that there will not here and there be individual\nexceptions) this war, whose actual conduct has provoked a degree of\nharshness which our knowledge of previous wars in the West would not\nhave allowed us to expect, is by contrast less cruel to all\nthose--prisoners and wounded--who are put out of the battle line.\n\nThe letters that we receive and documents already published--especially\nan interesting account which appeared in the _Neue Z\u00fcrcher Zeitung_ of\nOctober 18th, written by Dr. Schneeli, who had just been visiting the\nhospitals and prisoners' camps in Germany--show that in that country\nefforts are being made to reconcile the ideals of humanity with the\nexigencies of war. They make it clear that there is no difference\nbetween the care bestowed by the Germans on their own wounded and those\nof the enemy, and that friendly relations exist between the prisoners\nand their guards, who all share the same food.\n\nI could wish that a similar inquiry might be made and published on the\ncamps where German prisoners are concentrated in France. In the meantime\naccounts which reach me from individuals disclose a similar\nsituation,[18] and there is plenty of reliable evidence that in Germany\nand France alike the wounded of both countries are living in terms of\nfriendship. There are even soldiers who refuse to have their wounds\ndressed or receive their rations before their comrades the enemy have\nreceived similar attention. And who knows if it is not perhaps in the\nranks of the contending armies that the feelings of national hatred are\nleast violent? For there one learns to appreciate the courage of one's\nadversaries, since the same sufferings are common to all, and since\nwhere all energy is directed towards action there is none left for\npersonal animosity. It is amongst those who are not actively engaged\nthat there is developed the harsh and implacable brand of hatred, of\nwhich certain intellectuals provide terrible examples.\n\nThe moral situation of the military prisoner is therefore not so\noverwhelming as might be imagined, and his lot, sad as it is, is less to\nbe pitied than that of another class of prisoners of whom I shall speak\nlater. The feeling of duty accomplished, the memory of the struggle,\nglorifies his misfortune in his own eyes, and even in those of the\nenemy. He is not totally abandoned to the foe; international conventions\nprotect him; the Red Cross watches over him, and it is possible to\ndiscover where he is and to come to his assistance.\n\nIn this work the admirable _Agence internationale des prisonniers de\nguerre_, most providentially established some two months after the\ncommencement of the war, has caused the name of Geneva to be known and\nblessed in the most remote corners of France and Germany. It only needs,\nlike Providence itself, to gain the co-operation of those over whose\ninterests it watches, that is to say, of the States concerned which have\nbeen somewhat slow in supplying the lists we need. Under the \u00e6gis of the\nInternational Committee of the Red Cross, with M. Gustave Ador as\npresident and M. Max Dollfus as director, some 300 voluntary workers,\ndrawn from all classes of society, are assisting in its charitable work.\nMore than 15,000 letters a day pass through its hands. It daily\ntransmits about 7,000 letters between prisoners and their families, and\nis responsible for the safe dispatch of some 4,000 francs on an average.\nThe precise information which it is able to communicate was very meager\nat the start, but soon increased, until a thousand cases could be dealt\nwith in the course of a single day; and this number rapidly increased\nwith the arrival of more complete lists from the Governments concerned.\n\nThis renewal of intercourse between a prisoner and his family is not the\nonly beneficial result of our organization. Its peaceful work, its\nimpartial knowledge of the actual facts in the belligerent countries,\ncontribute to modify the hatred which wild stories have exasperated, and\nto reveal what remains of humanity in the most envenomed enemy. It can\nalso draw the attention of the different Governments, or at least of the\ngeneral public, to cases where a speedy understanding would be in the\ninterest of both parties--as, for instance, in the exchange of men who\nare so seriously wounded that they will be quite unable to take further\npart in the war, and whom it is useless and inhuman to keep languishing\nfar from their friends. Finally, it can effectively direct public\ngenerosity, which often hesitates for want of guidance. It can, for\ninstance, point out to neutral countries, who are so ungrudging in their\nanxiety to aid the sufferings of the combatants, where help is most\nurgently needed--for the wounded prisoners, convalescents leaving the\nhospital without linen or boots, and with no claims on the enemy for\nfurther support.[19]\n\nInstead of showering gifts (which, no doubt, are never superfluous) on\nthe armies who can and should be supported by the peoples for whom they\nare fighting, neutrals might well reserve the greater part of their\ngenerosity for those who are most destitute, those whose need is the\ngreatest, for they are feeble, broken, and alone.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nBut there is another class of prisoners on whom I would like interest to\nbe specially concentrated, for their situation is far more precarious,\nunprotected as they are by any international convention. These are the\ncivil prisoners. They are one of the innovations of this unbridled war,\nwhich seems to have set itself to violate all the rights of humanity. In\nformer wars it was only a question of a few hostages arrested here and\nthere as a guarantee of good faith for the pledge of some conquered\ntown. Never until now had one heard of populations taken bodily into\ncaptivity on the model of ancient conquests--a custom actively revived\nsince the beginning of this war. Such a contingency not having been\nforeseen, no conventions existed to regulate the situation in the laws\nof war, if the words have any meaning. And as it would have been awkward\nto formulate fresh laws in the midst of the struggle, it seemed more\nsimple to overlook them. It has been as though these unfortunates did\nnot exist.\n\nBut they do exist, and in thousands. Their number seems about equal on\nboth sides. Which of the belligerents took the initiative in these\ncaptures? At present certainty is impossible. It seems clear that in the\nsecond half of July Germany ordered the arrest of a number of Alsatian\ncivilians. To this France replied the day after her mobilization by\ndeclaring prisoners Germans and Austrians then to be found on her\nterritory. The casting of this vast net was followed by similar action\nin Germany and Austria, though, perhaps, with less result. The conquest\nof Belgium and the invasion of the North of France brought about a\nredoubling of these measures aggravated by violence. The Germans, on\nretiring after their defeat on the Marne, methodically made a clean\nsweep in the towns and villages of Picardy and Flanders of all persons\ncapable of bearing arms--500 men at Douai, at Amiens 1,800 summoned\nbefore the citadel on some apparently harmless pretext, and carried off\nwithout even the possibility of returning for a change of clothes.\n\nIn many cases the captures had not even the excuse of military utility.\nIn the village of Sompuis (Marne) on September 10th, the Saxons seized a\nhelpless village priest of seventy-three, scarcely able to walk, and\nfive old men of ages from sixty to seventy, one of whom was lame, and\ntook them away on foot. Elsewhere women and children are taken, happy if\nthey can remain together. Here a husband, mad with grief, searches for\nhis wife and son aged three, who have disappeared since the Germans\npassed through Qui\u00e8vrechain (Nord). There it is a mother and her\nchildren taken by the French near Guebwiller; the children were sent\nback, but not the mother. A French captain, wounded by the bursting of a\nshell, saw his wife also wounded by German bullets at Nom\u00eany\n(Meurthe-et-Moselle); since when she has disappeared, taken he does not\nknow where. An old peasant woman of sixty-three is taken away from her\nhusband near Villers-aux-Vents (Meuse) by a company of Germans. A child\nof sixteen is seized at its mother's house at Mulhouse.\n\nSuch action shows an utter lack of human feeling, and is almost more\nabsurd than cruel. It really appears as though people had been\ndeliberately separated from all who were dearest to them; and of those\nwho have so disappeared no trace remains by which they can at present be\nfound. I am not speaking of Belgium; there the silence is as of the\ngrave. Of what is taking place there nothing has been heard in the\nouter world for three months. Are the villages and towns still in\nexistence? I have before me letters from parents (in some cases\nbelonging to neutral nations) begging for news of their children of\ntwelve or eight years of age, detained in Belgium since hostilities\nbroke out. I have even found in the lists of these vanished\nchildren--doubtless prisoners of war--youthful citizens of four or two\nyears of age. Are we to understand that they too could have been\nmobilized?\n\nWe see the anguish of the survivors. Imagine the distress of those who\nhave disappeared, deprived of money or the means of obtaining any from\ntheir families. What misery is revealed in the first letters received\nfrom such families interned in France or Germany! A mother whose little\nboy is ill, although rich, cannot procure any money. Another, with two\nchildren, requests us to warn her family that if after the war, nothing\nmore is heard of her, it will mean that she has died of hunger. These\ncries of misery seemed in the noise of battle to fall on deaf ears for\nthe first two months. The Red Cross itself, absorbed in its immense\ntask, reserved all its help for the military prisoners, and the\nGovernments seemed to show a superb disdain for their unfortunate\ncitizens. Of what use are such as cannot serve! Yet these are the most\ninnocent victims of this war. They have not taken part in it, and\nnothing had prepared them for such calamities.\n\nFortunately a man of generous sympathies (he will not forgive me for\npublishing his name), Dr. Ferri\u00e8re, was touched by the misfortunes of\nthese outcasts of the war. With a tenacity as patient as it was\npassionate, he set himself to construct in the swarming hive of Red\nCross workers a special department to deal with their distress. Refusing\nto be discouraged by the innumerable difficulties and the remote chances\nof success, he persevered, limiting himself at first to drawing up lists\nof the missing, and trying to inspire confidence in their anxious\nfriends. He then attempted by every means in his power to discover the\nplace of internment, and to re-establish communications between\nrelations and friends. What joy when one can announce to a family that\nthe son or the father has been found! Every one of us at our table--for\nI, too, had the honor of sharing in the work--rejoices as though he were\na member of that family. And as luck would have it the first letter of\nthis kind which I had to write was to comfort some good people in my own\nlittle town in the Nivernais.\n\nGreat progress has already been made. The most pressing needs have\nobtained a hearing. The Governments have agreed to liberate women,\nchildren under seventeen, and men over sixty. Repatriation began on\nOctober 23rd through the Bureau of Berne, created by the Federal\nCouncil. It remains, if not to deliver the others (we cannot count on\nthis before the end of the war), at any rate to put them in\ncommunication with their families. In such cases, as in many others,\nmore can be expected from the charitable efforts of private individuals\nthan from Governments. The friends with whom we communicated in Germany\nor Austria as in France have replied with enthusiasm, all showing a\ngenerous desire to take part in our work. It is such questions\ntranscending national pride which reveal the underlying fellowship of\nthe nations which are tearing each other to pieces, and the sacrilegious\nfolly of war. How friends and enemies are drawn together in the face of\ncommon suffering which the efforts of all humanity would hardly suffice\nto alleviate!\n\nWhen after three months of fratricidal struggle one has felt the calming\ninfluence of this wide human sympathy, and turns once more to the field\nof strife, the rasping cries of hate in the press inspire only horror\nand pity. What object have they in view? They wish to punish crimes and\nare a crime in themselves; for murderous words are the seeds of future\nmurder. In the diseased organism of a fevered Europe everything vibrates\nand reverberates without end. Every word, every action, arouses\nreprisals. Him who fans hatred, hatred flares up to consume. Heroes of\nofficialdom! bullies of the press! the blows which you deal very often\nreach your own people, little though you think it--your soldiers, your\nprisoners, delivered into the hands of the enemy. They answer for the\nharm which you have done, and you escape the danger.\n\nWe cannot stop the war, but we can make it less bitter. There are\nmedicines for the body. We need medicines for the soul, to dress the\nwounds of hatred and vengeance by which the world is being poisoned. We\nwho write--let that be our task. And as the Red Cross pursues its work\nof mercy in the midst of the combat, like the bees of Holy Writ that\nmade their honey in the jaws of the lion, let us try to support its\nefforts. Let our thoughts follow the ambulances that gather up the\nwounded on the field of battle. May _Notre-Dame la Mis\u00e8re_ lay on the\nbrow of raging Europe her stern but succoring hand. May she open the\neyes of these peoples, blinded by pride, and show them that they are\nbut poor human flocks, equal in the face of suffering; suffering at all\ntimes so great that there is no reason to add to the burden.\n\n_Journal de Gen\u00e8ve_, October 30, 1914.\n\n\n\n\nVI. TO THE PEOPLE THAT IS SUFFERING FOR JUSTICE\n\n(For _King Albert's Book_.[20])\n\n\nBelgium has just written an Epic, whose echoes will resound throughout\nthe ages. Like the three hundred Spartans, the little Belgian army\nconfronts for three months the German Colossus; Leman-Leonides; the\nThermopyl\u00e6 of Li\u00e8ge; Louvain, like Troy, burnt; the deeds of King Albert\nsurrounded by his valiant men: with what legendary grandeur are these\nfigures already invested, and history has not yet completed their story!\nThe heroism of this people, who, without a murmur, sacrificed everything\nfor honor, has burst like a thunderclap upon us at a time when the\nspirit of victorious Germany was enthroning in the world a conception of\npolitical realism, resting stolidly on force and self-interest. It was\na liberation of the oppressed idealism of the West. And that the signal\nshould have been given by this little nation seemed a miracle.\n\nMen call the sudden appearance of a hidden reality a miracle. It is the\nshock of danger which makes us best understand the character of\nindividuals and of nations. What discoveries this war has caused us to\nmake in those around us, even among those nearest and dearest to us!\nWhat heroic hearts and savage beasts! The inner soul, not a new soul,\nreveals itself.\n\nIn this fearful hour Belgium has seen the hidden genius of her race\nemerge. The sterling qualities that she has displayed during the last\nthree months evoke admiration; it should not surprise any one who, in\nthe pages of history, has felt, coursing through the ages, the vigorous\nsap of her people. Small in numbers and in territory, but one of the\ngreatest in Europe in virtue of her overflowing vitality. The Belgians\nof today are the sons of the Flemings of Courtrai. The men of this land\nnever feared to oppose their powerful neighbors, the kings of France or\nSpain--now heroes, now victims, Artevelde and Egmont. Their soil,\nwatered by the blood of millions of warriors, is the most fertile in\nEurope in the harvests of the spirit. From it arose the art of modern\npainting, spread throughout the world by the school of the van Eycks at\nthe time of the Renaissance. From it arose the art of modern music, of\nthat polyphony which thrilled through France, Germany, and Italy for\nnearly two centuries. From it, too, came the superb poetic efflorescence\nof our times; and the two writers who most brilliantly represent French\nliterature in the world, Maeterlinck and Verhaeren, are Belgian. They\nare the people who have suffered most and have borne their sufferings\nmost bravely and cheerfully; the martyr-people of Philip II and of\nKaiser Wilhelm; and they are the people of Rubens, the people of\nKermesses and of Till Ulenspiegel.\n\nHe who knows the amazing epic re-told by Charles de Coster: _The heroic,\njoyous, and glorious adventures of Ulenspiegel and Lamme Goedjak_, those\ntwo Flemish worthies who might take their places side by side with the\nimmortal Don Quixote and his Sancho Panza--he who has seen that\ndauntless spirit at work, rough and facetious, rebellious by nature,\nalways offending the established powers, running the gauntlet of all\ntrials and hardships, and emerging from them always gay and\nsmiling--realizes also the destinies of the nation that gave birth to\nUlenspiegel, and even in the darkest hour fearlessly looks towards the\napproaching dawn of rich and happy days. Belgium may be invaded. The\nBelgian people will never be conquered nor crushed. The Belgian people\ncannot die.\n\nAt the end of the story of _Till Ulenspiegel_, when they think he is\ndead, and are going to bury him, he wakes up:\n\n     _\"Are they,\" he asks, \"going to bury Ulenspiegel the soul, Nele the\n     heart of mother Flanders? Sleep, perhaps, but die, no! Come,\n     Nele.\"_\n\n     _And he departed, singing his sixth song. But no one knows where he\n     sang his last._\n\n\n\n\nVII. LETTER TO MY CRITICS[21]\n\n\n_November 17, 1914._\n\nThere has reached me, after much delay, at Geneva, where I am engaged on\nthe International work of Prisoners of War, the echo of attacks against\nme in certain newspapers, roused by the articles that I have published\nin the _Journal de Gen\u00e8ve_, or rather by two or three passages\narbitrarily chosen from those articles (for they themselves are scarcely\nknown to anybody in France). My best reply will be to collect what I\nhave written and publish it in Paris. I would not add a word of\nexplanation, for there is not a line that I did not think it my right\nand my duty to set down. Moreover, I think that there is better work to\ndo at this moment than to defend oneself; there are others to defend,\nthe thousands of victims who are fighting in France. Time devoted to\npolemics is like a theft from these unfortunates, from these prisoners\nand families, whose hands seeking each other across space we are trying\nto unite at Geneva.\n\nBut not content with attacking me personally, they have attacked ideas\nand a cause which I believe to be that of the true France; and since my\nfriends expect me to defend these thoughts which are also theirs, I\nprofit by the hospitality which is offered me to reply distinctly and\nfrankly in good French.\n\nI have published four articles: a letter to Gerhart Hauptmann, written\nthe day after the devastation of Louvain, \"Above the Battle,\" \"The\nLesser of Two Evils,\" and \"Inter Arma Caritas.\" In these four articles I\nhave stated that of all the imperialisms which are the scourge of the\nworld, Prussian Military Imperialism is the worst. I have declared that\nit is the enemy of European liberty, the enemy of Western civilization,\nthe enemy of Germany herself, and that it must be destroyed. On this\npoint I imagine we are agreed.\n\nTo what do my critics take exception? Without entering into the\ndiscussion of certain points of detail, such as the appeal made by the\nAllies to the forces of Asia and Africa of which I disapprove, and\nstill disapprove because I see in it a near and grave danger for Europe\nand for the Allies themselves, and because this danger is already\nmaterializing in threats of disturbance in the world of Islam--exception\nis taken essentially on two grounds:\n\n1. My refusal to include the German people and its military and\nintellectual rulers in the same denunciation.\n\n2. The esteem and friendship which I have for the individuals in the\ncountry with which we are at war.\n\nI will reply first of all without ambiguity to this second reproach.\nYes, I have German friends as I have French, Italian, and English\nfriends, and friends of every race. They are my wealth: I am proud of it\nand keep it. When one has had the good fortune to meet in this world\nloyal souls with whom one shares one's most intimate thoughts, and with\nwhom one has formed bonds of brotherly union, such bonds are sacred, and\nnot to be broken asunder in the hour of trial. He would be a coward who\ntimidly ceased to own them, in order to obey the insolent summons of a\npublic opinion which has no right over the heart. Does the love of\ncountry demand this unkindness of thought which is associated with the\nname Corn\u00e9lienne? Corn\u00e9ille himself has given the answer:\n\n    --_Albe vous a nomm\u00e9, je ne vous connais plus._\n    --_Je vous connais encore, et c'est ce qui me tue._\n\nCertain letters, which I shall reproduce later, will show the grief,\nsometimes almost tragic, that such friendships mean in these moments.\nThanks to them, we have at least been able to defend ourselves against a\nhatred which is more murderous than war, since it is an infection\nproduced by its wounds; and it does as much harm to those whom it\npossesses as to those against whom it is directed.\n\nThis poison I see with apprehension spreading at the present moment.\nAmongst the victim populations, the cruelties and ravages committed by\nthe German armies have brought to birth a desire for reprisals. This,\nwhen once in existence, is not for the press to exasperate, for such a\ndesire runs the risk of leading to dangerous injustice--dangerous not\nonly for the conquered but above all for the conquerors. France has, in\nthis war, the chance of playing the nobler part, the rarest chance that\nthe world has even seen. A German wrote to me a few weeks ago: \"France\nhas won in this war a prodigious moral triumph. The sympathies of the\nwhole world are drawn towards her; and, most extraordinary of all,\nGermany herself has a secret leaning towards her enemy.\" All should wish\nthat this moral triumph may be hers to the end, and that she may remain\nto the end just, straightforward, and humane. I could never distinguish\nthe cause of France from that of humanity. It is just because I am\nFrench that I leave to our Prussian enemies the motto: \"_Oderint, dum\nmetuant._\" I wish France to be loved, I wish her to be victorious not\nonly by force, not only by right (that would be difficult enough), but\nby that large and generous heart which is pre-eminently hers. I wish her\nto be strong enough to fight without hatred and to regard even those\nagainst whom she is forced to fight as misguided brothers who must be\npitied when they have been rendered harmless.\n\nOur soldiers know it well, and I say nothing here of letters from the\nfront which tell us of compassion and kindness between the combatants.\nBut the civilians who are outside the combat, who do not fight, but\ntalk, who write and embroil themselves in a factitious and lunatic\nagitation and are never exhausted; these are delivered over to the winds\nof feverish violence. And there is the danger. For they form opinion,\nthe only opinion that can be expressed (all others are forbidden). It\nis for these that I write, not for those who are fighting (they have no\nneed of us!).\n\nAnd when I hear the publicists trying to rouse the energies of the\nnation by all the stimulants at their disposal for this one object, the\ntotal crushing of the enemy nation, I think it my duty to rise in\nopposition to what I believe to be at once a moral and a political\nerror. You make war against a State, not against a people. It would be\nmonstrous to hold sixty-five million men responsible for the acts of\nsome thousands--perhaps some hundreds. Here in French Switzerland, so\npassionately in sympathy with France, so eager both in its sympathies\nand in the duty of restraining them, I have been able for three months,\nby reading German letters and pamphlets, to examine closely the\nconscience of the German nation. And I have been able thus to take\naccount of a good many facts which escape the greater part of the French\npeople. The first, the most striking, the most ignored, is that there is\nnot in Germany as a whole any real hatred of France (all the hatred is\nturned against England). The especial pathos of the situation lies in\nthe fact that the French spirit only really began to exercise an\nattraction upon Germany some two or three years ago. Germany was\nbeginning to discover the true France, the France of work and of faith.\nThe new generations, the young classes that they have just led to the\nabattoir of Ypres and Dixmude, numbered the purest souls, the greatest\nidealists, those most possessed by the dream of universal brotherhood.\nIf I say that for many among them the war has been a laceration, \"a\nhorror, a failure, a renunciation of every ideal, an abdication of the\nspirit,\" as one of them wrote on the eve of his death--if I say that the\ndeath of P\u00e9guy has been mourned by many young Germans, no one would\nbelieve me. But belief will be a necessity the day I publish the\ndocuments which I have collected.\n\nIt is somewhat better understood in France how this German nation,\nenveloped in the network of lies woven by its Government, and abandoning\nherself thereto with a blind and obstinate loyalty, is profoundly\nconvinced that she was attacked, hemmed in by the jealousy of the world;\nand that she must defend herself at all costs or die. It is among the\nchivalrous traditions of France to render homage to the courage of an\nadversary. One owes it to that adversary to recognize that in default of\nother virtues the spirit of sacrifice is, in the present instance,\nalmost boundless. It would be a great mistake to force it to extremes.\nInstead of driving this blind people to a magnificent and desperate\ndefense, let us try to open their eyes. It is not impossible. An\nAlsatian patriot, to whom one could not impute indulgence for Germany,\nDr. Bucher of Strasbourg, told me not long since, that even though the\nGerman is full of haughty prejudices carefully fostered by his teachers,\nhe is at any rate always amenable to discussion and his docile spirit is\naccessible to arguments. As an example, I would instance the secret\nevolution that I see in progress in the thought of certain Germans.\nNumbers of German letters that I have read this month begin to utter\nagonized questionings as to the legitimacy of the proceedings of Germany\nin Belgium. I have seen this anxiety growing, little by little, in\nconsciences which at first reposed in the conviction of their right.\nTruth is slowly dawning. What will happen if its light conquers and\nspreads? Carry truth in your hands! Let it be our strongest weapon! Let\nus, like the soldiers of the Revolution, whose hearts live again in our\ntroops, fight not against our enemies, but for them. In saving the\nworld, let us save them too. France does not break old chains in order\nto rivet new.\n\nYour thoughts are fixed on victory. I think of the peace which will\nfollow. For however insistently the most militarist among you may talk,\nventuring as did an article to hold out the delightful promise of a\nperpetual war--\"a war which will last after this war, indefinitely....\"[22]\n(it will come to an end, nevertheless--for lack of combatants!) ...\nthere must come a day when you will stretch out the hand of friendship,\nyou and your neighbors across the Rhine, if it were only to come to an\nagreement, for the sake of your own business. You will have to\nre-establish supportable and humane relations: so set to work in such a\nmanner as not to make them impossible! Do not break down all the\nbridges, since it will ever be necessary to cross the river. Do not\ndestroy the future. A good open, clean wound will heal; but do not\npoison it. Let us be on our guard against hatred. If we prepare for war\nin peace according to the wisdom of nations, we should also prepare for\npeace in war. It is a task which seems to me not unworthy of those among\nus who find themselves outside the struggle, and who through the life of\nthe spirit have wider relations with the universe--a little lay church\nwhich, today more than the other, preserves its faith in the unity of\nhuman thought and believes that all men are sons of the same Father. In\nany case, if such a faith merits insult, the insults constitute an honor\nthat we will claim as ours before the tribunal of posterity.\n\n\n\n\nVIII. THE IDOLS\n\n\nFor more than forty centuries it has been the effort of great minds who\nhave attained liberty to extend this blessing to others; to liberate\nhumanity and to teach men to see reality without fear or error, to look\nthemselves in the face without false pride or false humility and to\nrecognize their weakness and their strength, that they may know their\ntrue position in the universe. They have illumined the path with the\nbrightness of their lives and their example, like the star of the magi,\nthat mankind may have light.\n\nTheir efforts have failed. For more than forty centuries humanity has\nremained in bondage--I do not say to masters (for such are of the order\nof the flesh, of which I am not speaking here; and their chains break\nsooner or later), but to the phantoms of their own minds. Such servitude\ncomes from within. We grow faint in the endeavor to cut the bonds which\nbind mankind, who straightway tie them again to be more firmly\nenthralled. Of every liberator men make a master. Every ideal which\nought to liberate is transformed into a clumsy idol. The history of\nhumanity is the history of Idols and of their successive reigns; and as\nhumanity grows older the power of the Idol seems to wax greater and more\ndestructive.\n\nAt first the divinities were of wood, of stone, or of metal. Those at\nany rate were not proof against the axe or against fire. Others followed\nthat no material force could reach, for they were graven in the\ninvisible mind. Yet all aspired to material dominion, and to secure for\nthem that dominion the peoples of the world have poured out their best\nblood: Idols of religions and of nationality: the Idol of liberty whose\nreign was established in Europe by the armies of the _sans-culotte_ at\nthe point of the bayonet. The masters have changed, the slaves are still\nthe same. Our century has made the acquaintance of two new species. The\nIdol of Race, at first the outcome of noble ideas, became in the\nlaboratories of spectacled savants the Moloch which Germany herself\nhurled against France in 1870 and which her enemies now wish to use\nagainst the Germany of today. The latest on the scene is that authentic\nproduct of German science, fraternally allied to the labors of industry,\nof commerce, and of the firm of Krupp--the Idol of Kultur surrounded by\nits Levites, the thinkers of Germany.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThe common feature of the cult of all Idols is the adaptation of an\nideal to the evil instincts of mankind. Man cultivates the vices which\nare profitable to him, but feels the necessity of legitimizing them;\nbeing unwilling to sacrifice them, he must idealize them. That is why\nthe problem at which he has never ceased to labor throughout the\ncenturies has been to harmonize his ideals with his own mediocrity. He\nhas always succeeded. The crowd has no difficulty here. It sets side by\nside its virtues and its vices, its heroism and its meanness. The force\nof its passions and the rapid course of the days which carry it along\ncause it to forget its lack of logic.\n\nBut the intelligent few cannot satisfy themselves with so little effort.\nNot that they are, as is often said, less readily swayed by passion.\nThis is a grave error; the richer a life becomes the more does it offer\nfor passion to devour, and history sufficiently shows the terrifying\nparoxysms to which the lives of religious leaders and revolutionaries\nhave attained. But these toilers in the spirit love careful work, and\nare repelled by popular modes of thought which perpetually break through\nthe meshes of reasoning. They have to make a more closely woven net in\nwhich instinct and idea, cost what it may, combine to form a stouter\ntissue. They thus achieve monstrous _chefs-d'oeuvre_. Give an\nintellectual any ideal and any evil passion and he will always succeed\nin harmonizing the twain. The love of God and the love of mankind have\nbeen invoked in order to burn, kill, and pillage. The fraternity of 1793\nwas sister to the Holy Guillotine. We have in our time seen Churchmen\nseeking and finding in the Gospels the justification of Banking and of\nWar. Since the outbreak of the war a clergyman of W\u00fcrtemberg established\nthe fact that _neither Christ nor John the Baptist nor the apostles\ndesired to suppress militarism_.[23] A clever intellectual is a conjuror\nin ideas. \"_Nothing in my hands--nothing up my sleeves._\" The great\ntrick is to extract from any given idea its precise contrary--war from\nthe Sermon on the Mount, or, like Professor Ostwald, the military\ndictatorship of the Kaiser from the dream of an intellectual\ninternationalism. For such conjurors these things are but child's play.\n\nLet us expose them, by examining the words of this Dr. Ostwald, who has\nappeared during the last few months as the Baptist of the Gospel of the\nspiked helmet.\n\nHere is the Idol to begin with--_Kultur (made in Germany), with a\ncapital K \"rectiligne et de quatre pointes, comme un chevel de frise,\"_\nas Miguel de Unamuno wrote to me. All around are little gods, the\nchildren of its loins: _Kulturstaat_, _Kulturbund_, _Kulturimperium_....\n\n_\"I am now\" (it is the voice of Ostwald[24]) \"going to explain to you\nthe great secret of Germany. We, or rather the Germanic race, have\ndiscovered the factor of Organization. Other peoples still live under\nthe r\u00e9gime of individualism while we are under that of Organization. The\nstage of Organization is a more advanced stage of civilization.\"_\n\nIt is surely clear that, like those missionaries who, in order to carry\nthe Christian faith to heathen peoples, secure the co-operation of a\nsquadron and a landing party which straightway establish in the\nidolatrous country commercial stores protected by a ring of cannon,\nGerman intelligence cannot without selfishness keep her treasures to\nherself. She is obliged to share them.\n\n\"_Germany wishes to organize Europe, for Europe has hitherto not been\norganized. With us everything tends to elicit from each individual the\nmaximal output in the direction most favorable for society. That for us\nis liberty in its highest form._\"\n\nWe may well pause to marvel at this way of talking about human \"culture\"\nas though it were a question of asparagus and artichokes. Of this\nhappiness, and these advantages, this maximal output, this market-garden\nculture, this liberty of artichokes subjected to a judicious forcing\nprocess, Professor Ostwald does not wish to deprive the other peoples of\nEurope. As they are so unenlightened as not to acquiesce with\nenthusiasm:\n\n\"_War will make them participate in the form of this organization in our\nhigher civilization._\"\n\nThereupon the chemist-philosopher, who is also in his leisure hours a\npolitician and a strategist, sketches in bold outline the picture of the\nvictories of Germany and a remodeled Europe--a United States of Europe\nunder the paternal sceptre of his mailed Kaiser: England crushed, France\ndisarmed, and Russia dismembered. His colleague Haeckel completes this\njoyous _expos\u00e9_ by dividing Belgium, the British Empire, and the North\nof France--like Perrette of the fable before her pitcher broke.\nUnfortunately neither Haeckel nor Ostwald tells us if their plan for the\nestablishment of this higher civilization included the destruction of\nthe Halle of Ypres, of the Library at Louvain, of the Cathedral at\nRheims. After all these conquests, divisions, and devastations, let us\nnot overlook this wonderful sentence of which Ostwald certainly did not\nrealize the sinister buffoonery, worthy of a Moli\u00e8re: \"You know that I\nam a pacifist.\"\n\nHowever far the high priests of a cult may allow their emotion to carry\nthem, their profession of faith still retains a certain diplomatic\nreserve which does not hamper their followers. Thus the\n_Kulturmenschen_. But the zeal of their Levites must frequently disturb\nthe serenity of Moses and Aaron--Haeckel and Ostwald--by its intemperate\nfrankness. I do not know what they think of the article of Thomas Mann\nwhich appeared in the November number of the _Neue Rundschau_: \"Gedanken\nim Kriege.\" But I do know what certain French intellectuals will think\nof it. Germany could not offer them a more terrible weapon against\nherself.\n\nIn an access of delirious pride and exasperated fanaticism Mann employs\nhis envenomed pen to justify the worst accusations that have been made\nagainst Germany. While an Ostwald endeavors to identify the cause of\n_Kultur_ with that of civilization, Mann proclaims: \"They have nothing\nin common. The present war is that of _Kultur_ (i. e., of Germany)\nagainst civilization.\" And pushing this outrageous boast of pride to the\npoint of madness, he defines civilization as Reason (_Vernunft,\nAufkl\u00e4rung_), Gentleness (_Sittigung, S\u00e4nftigung_), Spirit (_Geist,\nAufl\u00f6sung_), and Kultur as \"a spiritual _organization_ of the world\"\nwhich does not exclude \"bloody savagery.\" Kultur is \"the sublimation of\nthe demoniacal\" (_die Sublimierung des D\u00e4monischen_). It is \"above\nmorality, above reason, and above science.\" While Ostwald and Haeckel\nsee in militarism merely an arm or instrument of which Kultur makes use\nto secure victory, Thomas Mann affirms that Kultur and Militarism are\nbrothers--their ideal is the same, their aim the same, their principle\nthe same. Their enemy is peace, is spirit (\"_Ja, der Geist ist zivil,\nist b\u00fcrgerlich_\"). He finally dares to inscribe on his own and his\ncountry's banner the words, \"Law is the friend of the weak; it would\nreduce the world to a level. War brings out strength.\"\n\n    _Das Gesetz ist der Freund des Schwachen,_\n    _M\u00f6chte gern die Welt verflachen_\n    _Aber der Krieg l\u00e4sst die Kraft erscheinen...._\n\nIn this criminal glorification of violence, Thomas Mann himself has been\nsurpassed. Ostwald preached the victory of Kultur, if necessary by\nForce; Mann proved that Kultur is Force. Some one was needed to cast\naside the last veil of reserve and say \"Force alone. All else be\nsilent.\" We have read extracts from the cynical article in which\nMaximilian Harden, treating the desperate efforts of his Government to\nexcuse the violation of Belgian neutrality as feeble lies, dared to\nwrite:\n\n\"_Why on earth all this fuss? Might creates our Right. Did a powerful\nman ever submit himself to the crazy pretensions or to the judgment of a\nband of weaklings?_\"\n\nWhat a testimony to the madness into which German intelligence has been\nprecipitated by pride and struggle, and to the moral anarchy of this\nEmpire, whose _organization_ is imposing only to the eyes of those who\ndo not see farther than the fa\u00e7ade! Who cannot see the weakness of a\nGovernment which gags its socialist press and yet tolerates such an\ninsulting contradiction as this? Who does not see that such words\ndefame Germany before the whole world for centuries to come? These\nmiserable intellectuals imagine that with their display of infuriated\nNietzcheism and Bismarckism they are acting heroically and impressing\nthe world. They merely disgust it. They wish to be believed. People are\nonly too ready to believe them. The whole of Germany will be made\nresponsible for the delirium of a few writers. Germany will one day\nrealize she has had no more deadly enemy than her own intellectuals.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nI write here without prejudice, for I am certainly not proud of our\nFrench intellectuals. The Idol of Race, or of Civilization, or of\nLatinity, which they so greatly abuse, does not satisfy me. I do not\nlike any idol--not even that of Humanity. But at any rate those to which\nmy country bows down are less dangerous. They are not aggressive, and,\nmoreover, there remains even in the most fanatical of our intellectuals\na basis of native common sense, of which the Germans of whom I have just\nspoken seem to have lost all trace. But it must be admitted that on\nneither side have they brought honor to the cause of reason, which they\nhave not been able to protect against the winds of violence and folly.\nThere is a saying of Emerson's which is applicable to their failure:\n\n\"_Nothing is more rare in any man than an act of his own._\"\n\nTheir acts and their writings have come to them from others, from\noutside, from public opinion, blind and menacing. I do not wish to\ncondemn those who have been obliged to remain silent either because they\nare in the armies, or because the censorship which rules in countries\ninvolved in war has imposed silence upon them. But the unheard-of\nweakness with which the leaders of thought have everywhere abdicated to\nthe collective madness has certainly proved their lack of _character_.\n\nCertain somewhat paradoxical passages in my own writings have caused me\nat times to be styled an anti-intellectual; an absurd charge to bring\nagainst one who has given his life to the worship of thought. But it is\ntrue that Intellectualism has often appeared to me as a mere caricature\nof Thought--Thought mutilated, deformed, and petrified, powerless, not\nonly to dominate the drama of life, but even to understand it. And the\nevents of to-day have proved me more in the right than I wished to be.\nThe intellectual lives too much in the realm of shadows, of ideas.\nIdeas have no existence in themselves, but only through the hopes or\nexperiences which can fill them. They are either summaries, or\nhypotheses; frames for what has been or will be; convenient or necessary\nformul\u00e6. One cannot live and act without them, but the evil is that\npeople make them into oppressive realities. No one contributes more to\nthis than the intellectual, whose trade it is to handle them, who,\nbiased by his profession, is always tempted to subordinate reality to\nthem. Let there supervene a collective passion which completes his\nblindness, and it will be cast in the form of the idea which can best\nserve its purpose: it transfers its life-blood to that idea, and the\nidea magnifies and glorifies it in turn. Nothing is more long-lived in a\nman than a phantom which his own mind has created, a phantom in which\nare combined the madness of his heart and the madness of his head. Hence\nthe intellectuals in the present crisis have not been overcome by the\nwarlike contagion less than others, but they have themselves contributed\nto spreading it. I would add (for it is their punishment) that they are\nvictims of the contagion for a longer period: for whilst simple folk\nconstantly submit to the test of every-day action and of experience, and\nmodify their ideas without conscious regret, the intellectual finds\nhimself bound in the net of his own creation and every word that he\nwrites draws the bonds tighter. Hence while we see that in the soldiers\nof all armies the fire of hate is rapidly dying down and that they\nalready fraternize from trench to trench, the writers redouble their\nfurious arguments. We can easily prophesy that when the remembrance of\nthis senseless war has passed away among the people its bitterness will\nstill be smouldering in the hearts of the intellectuals....\n\nWho shall break the idols? Who shall open the eyes of their fanatical\nfollowers? Who shall make them understand that no god of their minds,\nreligious or secular, has the right to force himself on other human\nbeings--even he who seems the most worthy--or to despise them? Admitting\nthat your _Kultur_ on German soil produces the sturdiest and most\nabundant human crop, who has entrusted to you the mission of cultivating\nother lands? Cultivate your own garden. We will cultivate ours. There is\na sacred flower for which I would give all the products of your\nartificial culture. It is the wild violet of Liberty. You do not care\nabout it. You tread it under foot. But it will not die. It will live\nlonger than your masterpieces of barrack and hot-house. It is not\nafraid of the wind. It has braved other tempests than that of today. It\ngrows under brambles and under dead leaves. Intellectuals of Germany,\nintellectuals of France, labor and sow on the fields of your own minds:\nrespect those of others. Before _organizing_ the world you have enough\nto do to _organize_ your own private world. Try for a moment to forget\nyour ideas and behold yourselves. And above all, look at us. Champions\nof _Kultur_ and of Civilization, of the Germanic races and of Latinity,\nenemies, friends, let us look one another in the eyes. My brother, do\nyou not see there a heart similar to your own, with the same hopes, the\nsame egoism, and the same heroism and power of dream which forever\nrefashions its gossamer web? _Vois-tu pas que tu es moi_? said the old\nHugo to one of his enemies....\n\nThe true man of culture is not he who makes of himself and his ideal the\ncenter of the universe, but who looking around him sees, as in the sky\nthe stream of the Milky Way, thousands of little flames which flow with\nhis own; and who seeks neither to absorb them nor to impose upon them\nhis own course, but to give himself the religious persuasion of their\nvalue and of the common source of the fire by which all alike are fed.\nIntelligence of the mind is nothing without that of the heart. It is\nnothing also without good sense and humor--good sense which shows to\nevery people and to every being their place in the universe--and humor\nwhich is the critic of misguided reason, the soldier who, following the\nchariot to the Capitol, reminds C\u00e6sar in his hour of triumph that he is\nbald.\n\n_Journal de Gen\u00e8ve_, December 4, 1914.\n\n\n\n\nIX. FOR EUROPE: MANIFESTO OF THE WRITERS AND THINKERS OF CATALONIA\n\n\nNational passions are triumphant. For five months they have rent our\nEurope. They think they will soon have compassed its destruction and\neffaced its image in the hearts of the last of these who remain faithful\nto it. But they are mistaken. They have renewed the faith that we had in\nit. They have made us recognize its value and our love. And from one\ncountry to another we have discovered our unknown brothers, sons of the\nsame mother, who in the hour when she is denied, consecrate themselves\nto her defence.\n\nToday, it is from Spain that the voice reaches us, from the thinkers of\nCatalonia. Let us pass on their appeal which comes to us from the shores\nof the Mediterranean, like the sound of a Christmas bell. Another day\nthe bells of Northern Europe will be heard in their turn. And soon all\nwill ring together in unison. The test is good. Let us be thankful.\nThose who desired to separate us have joined our hands.\n\nR. R.\n\n_December 31, 1914._\n\n\nMANIFESTO OF THE _FRIENDS OF THE MORAL UNITY OF EUROPE_\n\nA number of literary and scientific men at Barcelona, as far removed\nfrom amorphous internationalism on the one hand as from mere\nparochialism on the other, have banded themselves together _to affirm\ntheir unchangeable belief in the moral unity of Europe_, and to further\nthis belief as far as the suffocating conditions resulting from the\npresent tragic circumstances permit.\n\nWe set out from the principle that the terrible war which today is\nrending the heart of this Europe of ours is, by implication, a _Civil\nWar_.\n\nA civil war does not exactly mean an unjust war; still, it can only be\njustified by a conflict between great ideals, and if we desire the\ntriumph of one or the other of these ideals, it must be for the sake of\nthe entire European Commonwealth and its general well-being. None of the\nbelligerents, therefore, can be allowed to aim at the complete\ndestruction of its opponents; and it is even less legitimate to start\nout from the criminal hypothesis that one or another of the parties is\n_de facto_ already excluded from this superior commonwealth.\n\nYet we have seen with pain assertions such as these approved and\ndeliriously spread abroad; and not always amongst common people, or by\nthe voices of those who speak not with authority. For three months it\nseemed as if our ideal Europe were ship-wrecked, but a reaction is\nmaking its appearance already. A thousand indications assure us that, in\nthe world of intellect at any rate, the winds are quieting down, and\nthat in the best minds the eternal values will soon spring up once more.\n\nIt is our purpose to assist in this reaction, to contribute to making it\nknown, and, as far as we are able, to ensure its triumph. We are not\nalone. We have with us in every quarter of the world the ardent\naspirations of far-sighted minds, and the unvoiced wishes of thousands\nof men of good will, who, beyond their sympathies and personal\npreferences, are determined to remain faithful to the cause of this\nmoral unity.\n\nAnd above all we have, in the far distant future, the appreciation of\nthe men who tomorrow will applaud this modest work to which we are\ndevoting ourselves today.\n\nWe will begin by giving the greatest possible publicity to those\nactions, declarations, and manifestations--whether they emanate from\nbelligerent or neutral nations--in which the effort of reviving the\nfeeling of a higher unity and a generous altruism may become apparent.\nLater we shall be able to extend our activities and place them at the\nservice of new enterprises. We demand nothing more of our friends, of\nour press, and of our fellow citizens than a little attention for these\nquickenings of reality, a little respect for the interests of a higher\nhumanity, and a little love for the great traditions and the rich\npossibilities of a _unified Europe_.\n\nBARCELONA, _November 27, 1914_.\n\n\nEUGENIO D'ORS, Member of the Institute; MANUEL DE MONTOLIU, Author;\nAURELIO RAS, Director of the Review _Estudio_; AUGUSTIN MURUA,\nUniversity Professor; TELESFORO DE ARANZADI, University Professor;\nMIGUEL S. OLIVER; JUAN PALAU, publicist; PABLO VILA, Director of _Mont\nd'Or_ College; ENRIQUE JARDI, Barrister; E. MESSEGUER, publicist; CARMEN\nKARR, Director of the _Residencia de Estudiantes El Hogar_; ESTEBAN\nTERRADES, Member of the Institute; JOSE ZULUETA, Member of Parliament;\nR. JORI, Author; EUDALDO DURAN REYNALS, Librarian of the _Biblioteca de\nCataluna_; RAFAEL CAMPALANS, Engineer; J. M. LOPEZ-PICO, Author; R.\nRUCABADO, Author; E. CUELLO CALOU, University Professor; MANUEL\nREVENLOS, Professor of the _Escuela de Funcionarios_; J. FARRAN MAYORAL,\nAuthor; JAIME MASSO TORRENTS, Member of the Institute; JORGE RUBIO\nBALAGUER, Director of the _Biblioteca de Cataluna_.\n\n_Translated from the Spanish by R. R._\n\n_Journal de Gen\u00e8ve_, January 9, 1915.\n\n\n\n\nX. FOR EUROPE: AN APPEAL FROM HOLLAND TO THE INTELLECTUALS OF ALL\nNATIONS\n\n\nIn the preceding chapter, in which I put before my readers the fine\nmanifesto of the Catalonian intellectuals \"For the Moral Unity of\nEurope,\" I stated that after this appeal from the Mediterranean South I\nwould make known those of the North. Amongst the latter here is the\nvoice of Holland:--\n\nThe _Nederlandsche Anti-Oorlog Road_ (Dutch Anti-War Council) is perhaps\nthe most important attempt that these last months has seen to unify\npacifist thought. Whilst recognizing the value of what has been done for\nsome years past in favor of peace, the N. A. O. R. is convinced that\n\"all this work could have been much more effective, and could even have\nprevented the present catastrophe, if it had been better taken in hand.\"\nThere has been lack of co-operation, wastage of energy, lack of\npenetration to the mass of the people. The problem is to discover if\nthis internal defect cannot be remedied. \"Will the world-wide tragedy of\nrivalry continue even inside the pacifist movement, or will this war\nteach those who are fighting against it the necessity of an energetic\norganization and preparation?\"\n\nTo this task the N.A.O.R. is devoting itself. Founded on October 8,\n1914, it had succeeded by January 15th in securing the adhesion of 350\nDutch societies (official, political, of all parties, religious,\nintellectual, labor), and its manifestoes brought together the\nsignatures of more than a hundred of the most illustrious names of the\nNetherlands--statesmen, prelates, officers, writers, professors,\nartists, business men, etc. It therefore represents a considerable moral\nforce.\n\nLet it be said at once that the N.A.O.R. does not look for an immediate\nend of the war by a peace at any price. On the one hand it declares\nitself \"it has formed no presumptuous idea of its strength; it has no\nna\u00efve confidence in vague peace formul\u00e6, nor even in well-defined mutual\nobligations. The universal war of today has, alas! taught it much in\nthis respect also.\" And, moreover, it is quite aware that a peace at\nany price, under present conditions, would only be a consecration of\ninjustice. The great public meetings which it has organized on December\n15th in the chief towns of the Netherlands have unanimously declared\nthat such a peace seemed neither possible nor even desirable. I will add\nthat certain of the articles of the N.A.O.R. suggest, with all the\nreserve necessitated by its attitude of neutrality and its profound\ndesire for impartiality, the direction of its suppressed sympathies.\nEspecially the following:--\n\n\"To repair the harm done by this war to the prestige of law in\ninternational relations. To bow before the law, whether customary or\ncodified in treaties is a duty, even where sanction is wanting. Reform\nwill be in vain: if there is not respect for law, and nations refuse to\nkeep their word, a durable peace is out of the question.\"\n\nThe object of the N.A.O.R. is especially to study the conditions in\nwhich we can realize a just, humane, and durable peace, which will\nsecure for Europe a long future of fruitful tranquility and of common\nwork, and to interest the public opinion of all nations in securing such\na peace. I cannot analyze here, owing to lack of space, the various\npublic manifestoes, the _Appeal to the People of Holland_ (October,\n1914), or the _Appeal for Co-operation and the Preparation of Peace_, a\nkind of attempt to mobilize the pacifist armies (November). The latter\nof these contains ideas which agree in many cases with those of the\n_Union of Democratic Control_ (the abolition of secret diplomacy, and a\nlarger control of foreign affairs by Parliaments; the prohibition of\nspecial armament industries; the establishment of the elementary\nprinciple of international law, that no country shall be annexed without\nthe consent, freely expressed, of the population). I will content myself\nhere with publishing the manifesto addressed to the thinkers, writers,\nartists, and scientists of all nations. In this manifesto we shall find\nsupport for the tasks which we ourselves have undertaken in working to\nkeep the thought of Europe sheltered from the ravages of the war, and in\ncontinually recalling it to the recognition of its highest duty, which\nis, even in the worst storms of passion, to safeguard the spiritual\nunity bf civilized humanity.\n\nR. R.\n\n_February 7, 1915._\n\n\nNEDERLANDSCHE ANTI-OORLOG RAAD\n\nImmediately after the European war had broken out, several groups of\nintellectuals belonging to the warring nations have advocated the\njustice of their country's cause in manifestoes and pamphlets, which\nthey have scattered in great numbers throughout the neutral states.[25]\nAnd this still goes on; side by side with the war of the sword a no less\nvehement war is carried on with the pen.\n\nThose writings have also reached us, the undersigned, all subjects of a\nneutral state. We have read them with the greatest interest, as they\nenable us to form a clear opinion not only of the frame of mind brought\nabout by the outbreak of the war among the intellectuals of the warring\nnations, but also of the opinions they hold about the causes and the\nnature of the present war.\n\nIt has not surprised us neutrals to see that the spokesmen of the\nopposing nations are equally convinced of the justice of their cause.\nNeither has it surprised us that those spokesmen evince such a strong\ninclination to advocate their rights before the neutral states. Indeed,\nin such a terrible struggle it is a psychologic necessity for all the\nnations concerned that they should believe implicitly in the justice of\ntheir cause; they must ardently desire to testify to their faith before\nothers. Only an unshakable confidence in the absolute justice of their\ncause can keep them from wavering or despairing during the gigantic\nstruggle.\n\nBut we have perceived with great sorrow that the greater part of those\nwritings are absolutely lacking in the slightest effort to be just\ntowards opponents; that the meanest and most malicious motives are\nascribed to them.\n\nWe respect the conviction of every one of the warring nations that they\nare fighting for a just cause. Even if we should have formed an opinion\nabout the origin of the war, we should yet not think the present a fit\nmoment to oppose different opinions or arguments to each other. This\nshould be the work of the future, when scientific research will be able\nto consider all the facts quietly, when national passions will have\nsubsided and the nations will listen with more composure to the verdict\nof history.\n\nYet we think it our duty and we consider it a privilege given to us as\nneutrals to utter a serious warning against the systematic rousing of a\nlasting bitterness between the now warring parties.\n\nThough fully aware that the late events have irritated the feeling of\nnationality to the utmost, yet we believe that patriotism should not\nprevent any one from doing justice to the character of one's enemy;\nthat faith in the virtues of one's own nation need not be coupled with\nthe idea that all vices are inherent in the opposing nation; that\nconfidence in the justice of one's own cause should not make one forget\nthat the other side cherishes that conviction with the same energy.\n\nBesides, no one should forget that the question: \"What nations will be\nenemies?\" depends on political relations, which vary according to\nunexpected circumstances. Today's enemy may be tomorrow's friend.\n\nThe tone, in which of late not only the papers to which we have referred\nabove, but also the newspaper press of the warring nations has written\nabout the enemy, threatens to arouse and to perpetuate the bitterest\nhatred.\n\nTo the evils directly resulting from the war, will be added the\nregrettable consequence that co-operation between the belligerent\nnations in art, science, and all other labors of peace will be delayed\nfor some time, nay, even made quite impossible. Yet the time will come\nafter this war, when the nations will have to resume some form of\nintercourse, social as well as spiritual.\n\nThe fewer fierce accusations have been breathed on either side, the less\none nation has attacked the character of the other: in short, the less\nlasting bitterness has been roused, so much the easier will it be\nafterwards to take up again the broken threads of international\nintercourse.\n\nThis rousing of hatred and bitterness is also an impediment in the way\nthat leads our thoughts towards peace.\n\nEvery one who in word or writing rails at the enemy or excites national\npassions is responsible for the longer duration of this horrible war.\n\nTherefore, we the undersigned, appeal to all those of the same mind,\nespecially among those belonging to the warring nations, to co-operate\nfor this purpose: that in word and writing everything be avoided that\nmay rouse lasting animosity.\n\nWe especially address this appeal to those who influence public opinion\nin their own country, to men of science and to artists, to those who\nlong ago have realized that in all civilized countries there are men and\nwomen with the same notions of justice and morality as they have\nthemselves.\n\nMay the representatives of all countries--according to the saying of a\nDutch statesmen--remember what unites them and not only what separates\nthem!\n\n_Signed_:--H.-C. DRESSELHUYS, Secretary-General of the Ministry of\nJustice, _President_ of the N.A.O.R. J.-H. SCHAPER, member of the\nSecond Chamber, _Vice-President_. Madame M. ASSER-THORBEKE, secretary of\nthe Dutch League for Women's Suffrage. Professor Dr. D. VAN EMBDEN,\nProfessor of law at Amsterdam. Dr. KOOLEN, member of the Second Chamber.\nV.-H. RUTGERS, member of the Second Chamber. Baron de JONG VAN BEEK EN\nDONK, _Secretary_ of the N.A.O.R. (and also subscribed to by 130\npoliticians, intellectuals, and artists, including FREDERIK VAN EEDEN,\nWILLEM MENGELBERG, etc.). Office: Theresiastraat, 51, The Hague.\n\n_Journal de Gen\u00e8ve_, February 15, 1915.\n\n\n\n\nXI. LETTER TO FREDERIK VAN EEDEN\n\n\n_January 12, 1915._\n\nMY DEAR FRIEND:\n\nYou offer me the hospitality of your paper _De Amsterdammer_. I thank\nyou and accept. It is good to take one's stand with those free souls who\nresist the unrestrained fury of national passions. In this hideous\nstruggle, with which the conflicting peoples are rending Europe, let us\nat least preserve our flag, and rally round that. We must re-create\nEuropean opinion. That is our first duty. Among these millions who are\nonly conscious of being Germans, Austrians, Frenchmen, Russians,\nEnglish, etc., let us strive to be _men_, who, rising above the selfish\naims of short-lived nations, do not lose sight of the interests of\ncivilization as a whole--that civilization which each race mistakenly\nidentifies with its own, to destroy that of the others. I wish your\nnoble country,[26] which has always preserved its political and moral\nindependence among the great surrounding states, could become the hearth\nof this ideal Europe we believe in--the hearth round which shall gather\nall those who seek to rebuild her.\n\nEverywhere there are men who think thus though they are unknown one to\nanother. Let us get to know them. Let us bring together each and all.\nHere I would introduce to you two important groups, one from the North\nand one from the South--the Catalonian thinkers who have formed the\nsociety of _Amis de l'Unit\u00e9 Morale de l'Europe_ at Barcelona--I send you\ntheir fine appeal: and the _Union of Democratic Control_ founded in\nLondon and inspired by indignation against this European war, and by the\nfirm determination to render it impossible for the diplomatists and\nmilitarists to inaugurate another. I am having the programmes and the\nfirst publications sent to you. This Union, whose general Council\ncontains members of Parliament, and authors like Norman Angell, Israel\nZangwill, and Vernon Lee, has already formed twenty branches in towns in\nGreat Britain.\n\nLet us try and unite permanently all such organizations, though each has\nits racial characteristics and peculiarities, for all aim at\nre-establishing the peace of Europe as best they may. With them let us\ntake stock of our united resources. Then we can act.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nWhat shall we do? Try to put an end to the struggle? It is no use\nthinking of that now. The brute is loose; and the Governments have\nsucceeded so well in spreading hatred and violence abroad that even if\nthey wished they could not bring it back again into control. The damage\nis irreparable. It is possible that the neutral countries of Europe and\nthe United States of America may decide one day to interfere, and\nendeavor to put an end to a war which, if it continued indefinitely,\nwould threaten to ruin them as well as the belligerents. But I do not\nknow what one must expect from this too tardy intervention.\n\nIn any case I see another outlet for our activity. Let the war be what\nit may--we can no longer intervene; but at least we must try to make the\nscourge productive of as little evil and as much good as possible. And\nin order to do this we must get public opinion all the world over to see\nto it that the peace of the future shall be just, that the greed of the\nconqueror (whoever that may be) and the intrigues of diplomacy, do not\nmake it the seed of a new war of revenge; and that the moral crimes\ncommitted in the past are not repeated or allowed to stain yet darker\nthe record of humanity. That is why I hold the first article of the\nUnion of Democratic Control as a sacred principle: \"No Province shall be\ntransferred from one Government to another without the consent by\nplebiscite of the population of such province.\" We must oppose those\nodious maxims which have weighed too long on the populations they\nenslave and which quite recently Professor Lasson dared to repeat as a\nthreat for the future, in his cynical Catechism of Force (_Das\nKulturideal und der Krieg_).[27]\n\nAnd this principle must be proposed and adopted at once without any\ndelay. If we waited to announce it until--the war being over--the\ncongress of the Powers were assembled, we should be suspected of wishing\nto make justice serve the interest of the conquered. It is now, when the\nforces of the two sides are equal, that we must establish this\nprimordial right which soars over all the armies.\n\nFrom this principle we can deduce an immediate application. Since the\nwhole of Europe is disorganized let us profit by it to set in order\nthis untidy house! For a long time injustices have been accumulating.\nThe moment of settling the general account will be an opportunity of\nrectifying them. The duty of all of us who feel for the brotherhood of\nmankind is to stand for the rights of the small nations. There are some\nin both camps: Schleswig, Alsace, Lorraine, Poland, the Baltic nations,\nArmenia, the Jewish people. At the beginning of the war Russia made some\ngenerous promises. We have registered them in our minds; let her not\nforget them! We are as determined about Poland, torn by the claws of\nthree imperial eagles, as we are about Belgium crucified. We remember\nall. It is because our fathers, obsessed by their narrow realism and by\nselfish fears, let the rights of the people of Eastern Europe be\nviolated, that today the West is shattered, and the sword hangs over the\nsmall nations, over you, my friends, as over the country which is\nbefriending me, Switzerland. Whoever harms one of us harms all the\nothers. Let us unite! Above all race questions, which are for the most\npart a mask behind which pride crouches and the interests of the\nfinancial or aristocratic classes dissemble, there is a law of humanity,\neternal and universal, of which we are all the servants and guardians;\nit is that of the right of a people to rule themselves. And he who\nviolates shall be the enemy of all.\n\nR. R.\n\n_De Amsterdammer Weekblad voor Nederland_, January\n24, 1915.\n\n\n\n\nXII. OUR NEIGHBOR THE ENEMY\n\n\n_March 15, 1915._\n\nWhile the war tempest rages, uprooting the strongest souls and dragging\nthem along in its furious cyclone, I continue my humble pilgrimage,\ntrying to discover beneath the ruins the rare hearts who have remained\nfaithful to the old ideal of human fraternity. What a sad joy I have in\ncollecting and helping them!\n\nI know that each of their efforts--like mine--that each of their words\nof love, rouses and turns against them the hostility of the two hostile\ncamps. The combatants, pitted against each other, agree in hating those\nwho refuse to hate. Europe is like a besieged town. Fever is raging.\nWhoever will not rave like the rest is suspected. And in these hurried\ntimes when justice cannot wait to study evidence, every suspect is a\ntraitor. Whoever insists, in the midst of war, on defending peace among\nmen knows that he risks his own peace, his reputation, his friends, for\nhis belief. But of what value is a belief for which no risks are run?\n\nCertainly it is put to the test in these days, when every day brings the\necho of violence, injustice, and new cruelties. But was it not still\nmore tried when it was entrusted to the fishermen of Judea by him whom\nhumanity pretends to honor still--with its lips more than with its\nheart? The rivers of blood, the burnt towns, all the atrocities of\nthought and action, will never efface in our tortured souls the luminous\ntrack of the Galilean barque, nor the deep vibrations of the great\nvoices which from across the centuries proclaim reason as man's true\nhome. You choose to forget them, and to say (like many writers of today)\nthat this war will begin a new era in the history of mankind, a reversal\nof former values, and that from it alone will future progress be dated.\nThat is always the language of passion. Passion passes away. Reason\nremains--reason and love. Let us continue to search for their young\nshoots amidst the bloody ruins.\n\nI feel the same joy when I find the fragile and valiant flowers of human\npity piercing the icy crust of hatred that covers Europe, as we feel in\nthese chilly March days when we see the first flowers appear above the\nsoil. They show that the warmth of life persists below the surface of\nthe earth, that fraternal love persists below the surface of the\nnations, and that soon nothing will prevent it rising again.\n\nI have on several occasions shown how the neutral countries have become\nthe refuge of this European spirit, which seems driven from the\nbelligerent countries by the armies of the pen, more savage than the\nothers because they risk nothing. The efforts made in Holland or in\nSpain to save the moral unity of Europe, the burning charity and\nuntiring help that Switzerland lavishes on prisoners, on wounded, on\nvictims of both sides, are a great comfort to oppressed souls, who in\nevery country are suffocating in the atmosphere of hatred forced on\nthem, and who look for purer air. But I find still more beautiful and\ntouching the signs of fraternal aid between friends and enemies in\nbelligerent countries, however rare and feeble they may be.\n\nIf there are two countries between which the present war seems specially\nto have created an abyss of hatred and misunderstanding, they are\nEngland and Germany. The writers and publicists of Germany, whose orders\nare to profess for France rather sympathy and compassion than\nanimosity, and who are even constrained to distinguish between the\npeople and the Government of Russia, have vowed eternal hatred against\nEngland. _Hasse England_ has become their _Delenda Carthago_. The most\nmoderate declare that the struggle cannot be ended except by the\ndestruction of the _Seeherrschaft_ (naval supremacy) of Britain. And\nGreat Britain is not less determined to continue the conflict until\nGerman militarism has been totally eradicated. Yet it is precisely\nbetween these two nations that the noblest bonds of mutual assistance\nfor the misfortunes of the enemy have been formed and maintained.\n\nTwo days after the declaration of war there was founded in London by the\nArchbishop of Canterbury and by well known persons, such as J.\nAllen-Baker, M.P., the Right-Hon. W. H. Dickinson, M.P., Lord and Lady\nCourtney of Penwith, the _Emergency Committee for the Assistance of\nGermans, Austrians, and Hungarians in Distress_. This work, which\naffects a large part of England, consists in paying the repatriation\nexpenses of destitute civilians, of accompanying German women and girls\non their return journey, of securing hospitality in families for poor\nGermans and finding work for them. By the end of December almost \u00a310,000\nhad been spent in this way. Several sub-committees visit Prisoners'\nCamps, facilitate correspondence between the belligerent nations, or\nundertake, for Christmas, to convey to interned alien enemies more than\n20,000 parcels and 200 Christmas trees. Another English society, already\nin existence before the war, the _Society of Friends of Foreigners in\nDistress_, regularly looks after 1,800 German and Austrian families.\nFinally, the Central Bureau (London) of the International Union of Women\nSuffrage Societies has rendered great service to foreigners, paying for\nthe return journey of between seven and eight thousand women.\n\nIn Germany there has been founded at Berlin a similar Bureau for giving\ninformation and assistance to Germans abroad, and to foreigners in\nGermany (_Auskunfts-und Hilfsstelle f\u00fcr Deutsche im Ausland und\nAusl\u00e4nder in Deutschland_). Amongst its members may be noted\naristocratic names, and persons well known in the religious and academic\nworld: Frau Marie von B\u00fclow-Moerlins, Helene Gr\u00e6fin Harrach, Nora\nFreiin von Schleinitz, Professors W. Foerster, D. Baumgarten, Paul\nNatorp, Martin Rade, Siegmund-Schultze, etc. At its head is a lady of\ndeep religious feeling, Dr. Elisabeth Rotten. As will be readily\nimagined, an undertaking of this kind has not failed to evoke suspicion\nand opposition in nationalist quarters. But it has emerged successful,\nand persists; and here are the terms in which it justifies its high\nmission against the ravings of German Chauvinism:\n\n\"Since the beginning of the war we have recognized the obligation to\ninterest ourselves in the welfare of foreigners stranded in Germany.\nEfforts such as ours are as unpopular in our country as in other\ncountries. At a time when the whole German people is engaged in\nresisting the enemy, it seems superfluous to render to those who belong\nto foreign countries more than minimum services to which they are\nlegally entitled. But it is not only the thought of our kinsmen abroad\nwhich urges us to this work, it is our own desire to render friendly\nservice (_Freundendienste_) to those who, through no fault of their own,\nare in difficulties because of the war. Even in war time, our neighbor\nis he who is in need of our help; and love for one's enemy\n(_Feindesliebe_) remains a sign whereby those who retain their faith in\nthe Lord may recognize one another....\n\n\"We have been able to reassure German families as to the lot of their\nmembers in enemy countries, and in return to vouch to foreigners for the\nfact that their friends in our country will be able to rely on us for\nassistance if they need it. We have been able to help as neighbors\n(_Naechstendienste_) innocent enemies, in whom we see human brothers and\nsisters. Above and beyond this practical aid, we find consolation and\ncomfort in being able freely to hearken, even in such times as these, to\nthe voice of humanity, and to the command 'love thy neighbor.' The\ntragedy which bursts over the earth on every side, which fills all our\nbeing with a religious respect for human suffering, but also stirs our\nlove and self-sacrifice, enlarges our hearts and leaves no room except\nfor feelings of affirmation and benevolent action.\n\n\"Our desire to help and to alleviate suffering knows no frontiers. This\nneed is all the more urgent when we find in the sufferings of others the\ntraits of what we ourselves also suffer. What unites men goes deeper\ninto our being than what separates them. That we can tend the wounds\nthat we are constrained to deal, and that the same is the case in the\nenemy's country, gives promise of the brighter days which will come. In\nthe midst of the tempest which destroys all around us so many things\nwhich we consider worthy of eternal existence, the possibility of such\naction strengthens our courage and gives us hope that new bridges will\nbe rebuilt, on which the men who now find themselves separated, will\nonce more be closely united in a common effort.\"\n\nI dedicate these noble words to my friends amongst the people of France,\nwho have so often, by letter or by message, declared to me their\nsympathy for such thoughts and their unchanging faith in humanity. I\ndedicate them to all in France who, even in these days, by their justice\nand goodness contribute to make their country loved, as much as she\nmakes herself admired by her arms--to those who assure her of the name\nwhich I read with emotion on a postcard written yesterday, on his way to\nGeneva, by a badly wounded German who had been repatriated: the name of\n_gutes Frankreich_, \"good France,\" or, as our tender-hearted old writers\nused to say, \"_Douce_ France.\"\n\nR. R.\n\nI take this opportunity of recommending to my French readers the\npublication of Mme. Arthur Spitzer (Geneva): _Le Paquet du prisonnier de\nguerre_. It has contributors in Paris, and was founded in November \"to\nbring comfort in their misery to such French, Belgians, and English\nprisoners as cannot be assisted by their families.\" It begs all who wish\nto send a parcel to a relation or friend who has been taken prisoner, to\nsend with it, when possible, a similar consignment for some other\nprisoner--one of their fellow countrymen without relations, friends, or\nresources. May this noble thought of solidarity be extended later, in\nmore humane times, so that whoever helps a prisoner belonging to his own\ncountry may be willing at the same time to help an enemy prisoner!\n\nR. R.\n\n_Journal de Gen\u00e8ve_, March 15, 1915.\n\n\n\n\nXIII. A LETTER TO SVENSKA DAGBLADET OF STOCKHOLM[28]\n\n\nThe European thought of tomorrow is with the armies. The furious\nintellectuals in one camp and the other who insult one another do not\nrepresent it at all. The voice of the peoples who will return from the\nwar, after having experienced the terrible reality, will send back into\nthe silence of obscurity these men who have revealed themselves as\nunworthy to be spiritual guides of the human race. Amongst those who\nthus retire more than one St. Peter will then hear the cock crow, and\nwill weep saying, \"Lord, I have denied thee!\"\n\nThe destinies of humanity will rise superior to those of all the\nnations. Nothing will be able to prevent the reforming of the bonds\nbetween the thought of the hostile nations. Whatever nation should stand\naside would commit suicide. For by means of these bonds the tide of life\nis kept in motion.\n\nBut they have never been completely broken, even at the height of the\nwar. The war has even had the sad advantage of grouping together\nthroughout the universe the minds who reject national hatred. It has\ntempered their strength, it has welded their wills into a solid block.\nThose are mistaken who think that the ideals of a free human fraternity\nare at present stifled! They are but silent under the gag of military\n(and civil) dictation which reigns throughout Europe. But the gag will\nfall, and they will burst forth with explosive force. I am agonized by\nthe sufferings of millions of innocent victims, sacrificed today on the\nfield of battle, but I have no anxiety for the future unity of European\nsociety. It will be realized anew. The war of today is its baptism of\nblood.\n\nR. R.\n\n_April 10, 1915._\n\n\n\n\nXIV. WAR LITERATURE\n\n\nThe intellectuals on both sides have been much in evidence since the\nbeginning of the war; they have, indeed, brought so much violence and\npassion to bear upon it, that it might almost be called their war!\n\nIt seems to me, however, that attention has not been sufficiently drawn\nto the fact that, with a few exceptions, it is only the voice of the\nolder generation that has been heard--the voice of Academicians, and\nProfessoren, of distinguished members of the press and the universities,\nof poets of established reputations, and the doyens of literature, art,\nand science.\n\nAs far as France is concerned, the explanation of this is simple: nearly\nall those up to the age of forty-eight who are able to bear arms are now\nacting instead of talking. In Germany the situation is rather different,\nsince for various reasons, which I shall not attempt to elucidate, much\nof the literary youth of the nation has remained at home, and continues\nto publish books. Even those who are at the front contrive to send\narticles and poems to the Reviews (for the passion for writing dies hard\nin Germany).\n\nIt seems to me to be of importance to ascertain what spiritual currents\nare influencing the young intellectuals of Germany.[29]\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nIt has been pointed out that in all countries the extremest views have\nbeen expressed by writers who have already passed _el mezzo del\ncammino_. We shall attempt to find the reason for this at some later\ndate. At present we are content again to verify this fact in the case of\nGerman writers. Almost all the celebrated and acknowledged poets, all\nthose who were rich in years and in honor, were swept off their feet at\nthe beginning of the war. And this fact is all the more curious because\nsome of them had been up to that time the apostles of peace, of pity,\nand of humanitarianism. Dehmel, the enemy of war, the friend of all men,\nwho said that he did not know to which of the ten nationalities he owed\nhis intellect, is now writing Battle Songs (_Schlachtenlieder_), and\nSongs of the Flag (_Fahnenlieder_), apostrophizing the enemy, praising\nand dealing death. (At the age of fifty-one he is learning to bear arms,\nand has enlisted against the Russians.) Gerhart Hauptmann, whom Fritz\nvon Unruh calls \"the poet of brotherly love,\" has shaken off his\nneurasthenia, and bids men \"mow down the grass which drips with blood.\"\nFranz Wedekind is pouring out invectives against Czarism, Lissauer\nagainst England. Arno Holz is raving deliriously. Petzold desires to be\nin every bullet that enters an enemy's heart; whilst Richard Nordhausen\nhas written an Ode to a Howitzer.[30]\n\nAt first the younger writers as well were possessed with the same\nmadness for war; but, in contact with the sufferings they endured and\ninflicted, it quickly disappeared. Fritz von Unruh enlisted as a Uhlan,\nand left for the front, crying \"Paris, Paris is our goal!\" Since the\nBattle of the Aisne, in September, he has written \"Der Lamm\": \"_Lamb of\nGod, I have seen thy look of suffering. Give us peace and rest; lead us\nback to the heaven of love, and give us back our dead_.\" Rudolf\nLeonhard sang of war at the beginning, and is still fighting; on\nre-reading his poems shortly afterwards, he wrote on the front page:\n\"_These were written during the madness of the first weeks. That madness\nhas spent itself, and only our strength is left. We shall again win\ncontrol over ourselves and love one another._\" Poets, hitherto unknown,\nare revealed by the cry of compassion wrung from their anguished hearts.\nTo Andrea Fram, who has remained at home, it is a grief that he does not\nsuffer, whilst thousands of others suffer and die. \"_All thy love, and\nall thy agony, in spite of thy ardent desire, avail not to soothe the\nlast hour of a single man who is dying yonder._\" Upon Ludwig Marck each\nminute weighs like a nightmare:--\n\n    Menschen in Not....\n    Br\u00fcder dir tot....\n    Krieg ist im Land....\n\nThe poet who writes under the pseudonym of Dr. Owlglass proposed a new\nideal for Germany, on the seventieth anniversary of the birth of\nNietzsche (October 15th): not the superman, but at least--man. And Franz\nWerfel realizes this ideal in poems thrilling with a mournful humanity,\nwhich takes part in the sacrament of misery and death:\n\n\"_We are bound together not only by our common words and deeds, but\nstill more by the dying glance, the last hours, the mortal anguish of\nthe breaking heart. And whether you bow down before the tyrant, or gaze\ntrembling into the beloved's countenance, or mark down your enemy with\npitiless glance, think of the eye that will grow dim, of the failing\nbreath, the parched lips and clenched hands, the final solitude, and the\nbrow that grows moist in the last agony.... Be kind.... Tenderness is\nwisdom, kindness is reason[31].... We are strangers all upon this\nearth, and die but to be reunited._\"[32]\n\nBut the one German poet who has written the serenest and loftiest words,\nand preserved in the midst of this demoniacal war an attitude worthy of\nGoethe, is Hermann Hesse. He continues to live at Berne, and, sheltered\nthere from the moral contagion, he has deliberately kept aloof from the\ncombat. All will remember his noble article in the _Neue Z\u00fcrcher\nZeitung_ of November 3rd, \"_O Freunde, nicht diese T\u00f6ne!_\" in which he\nimplored the artists and thinkers of Europe \"to save what little peace\"\nmight yet be saved, and not to join with their pens in destroying the\nfuture of Europe. Since then he has written some beautiful poems, one\nof which, an Invocation to Peace, is inspired with deep feeling and\nclassical simplicity, and will find its way to many an oppressed heart.\n\n    Jeder hat's gehabt\n    Keiner hat's gesch\u00e4tzt.\n    Jeden hat der s\u00fcsse Quell gelabt.\n    O wie klingt der Name Friede jetzt!\n\n    Klingt so fern und zag,\n    Klingt so tr\u00e4nenschwer,\n    Keiner weiss und kennt den Tag,\n    Jeder sehnt ihn vol Verlangen her....\n\n(\"Each one possessed it, but no one prized it. Like a cool spring it\nrefreshed us all. What a sound the word Peace has for us now!\n\n\"Distant it sounds, and fearful, and heavy with tears. No one knows or\ncan name the day for which all sigh with such longing.\")\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThe attitude of the younger reviews is curious: for whereas the older,\ntraditional reviews (those which correspond to our _Revue des Deux\nMondes_ or our _Revue de Paris_) are more or less affected by military\nfervor--thus, for instance, the _Neue Rundschau_, which printed Thomas\nMann's notorious vagaries on Culture and Civilization (_Gedanken im\nKriege_)--many of the younger ones affect a haughty detachment from\nactual events.\n\nThat impassive publication, _Bl\u00e4tter f\u00fcr die Kunst_, over which broods\nthe invisible personality of Stefan George, published at the end of 1914\na volume of poems of 156 pages, which did not contain a single line\nreferring to the war. A note at the end affirms that the points of view\nof the various authors have not changed on account of recent events, and\nanticipates the objection that \"this is not the time for poetry,\" by the\nsaying of Jean Paul: \"No period has so much need of poetry, as the one\nwhich thinks it can do without it.\"\n\n_Die Aktion_, a vibrating, audacious Berlin review, with an ultra-modern\npoint of view, totally different from the calm impersonality of _Bl\u00e4tter\nf\u00fcr die Kunst_, stated in its issue of August 15, 1914, that it would\nnot concern itself with politics, but would contain only literature and\nart. And if it finds room in its literary columns for the war poems sent\nfrom the field of battle by the military doctors, Wilhelm Klemm and Hans\nKock, it is in consideration of their value as art, and not for the\nvivacity of their patriotic sentiments; for it scoffs mercilessly at\nthe ridiculous bards of German Chauvinism, at Heinrich Vierordt, the\nauthor of _Deutschland, hasse_, at the criminal poets who stir up hatred\nwith their false stories, and at Professor Haeckel. The dilettantism of\nthis review is extreme. Its weekly issues contain translations from the\nFrench of Andr\u00e9 Gide, P\u00e9guy, and L\u00e9on Bloy, and reproductions of the\nworks of Daumier, Delacroix, C\u00e9zanne, Matisse, and R. de la Fresnaye:\n(cubism flourishes in this Berlin review). The issue of October 24th is\ndevoted to P\u00e9guy, and contains, as frontispiece, Egon Schiele's portrait\nof the man, who is honored by Franz Pfemfert, the editor, as \"the purest\nand most vigorous moral force in French literature of today.\" Let us\nhasten to add, however, that, as is often the case on the other side of\nthe Rhine, they are carried away by their zeal in deploring his death as\nof one of their countrymen, and in proclaiming themselves his heirs. But\nthe pride which admires is at least superior to the pride which\ndisparages.\n\nThe most important of these young reviews is _Die Weissen Bl\u00e4tter_;\nimportant on account of the variety of questions it deals with, and the\nvalue and number of its contributors, as well as for the\nbroad-mindedness of its editor--Ren\u00e9 Schickele. An Alsatian by birth,\nhe belongs to those who feel most acutely the bitterness of the present\nstruggle. After an interval of three months _Die Weissen Bl\u00e4tter_, which\nalmost corresponds to our _Nouvelle Revue Fran\u00e7aise_, reappeared in\nJanuary last with the following declaration, akin to that of the _Revue\ndes Nations_, at Berne. \"_It seems good to us to begin the work of\nreconstruction, in the midst of the war, and to aid in preparing for the\nvictory of the spirit. The community of Europe is at present apparently\ndestroyed. Is it not the duty of all of us who are not bearing arms, to\nlive from today onwards according to the dictates of our conscience, as\nit will be the duty of every German when once the war is over?_\"\n\nBy the side of these disinterested manifestoes about actual politics,\nappear lengthy historical novels (_Tycho Brah\u00e9_ by Max Brod) and\nsatirical comedies by Carl Sternheim, who continues to scourge the upper\nclasses of German society, and the capitalists, for _Die Weissen\nBl\u00e4tter_ is open to all questions of the day. But in spite of the actual\ndifferences which must necessarily exist between a German and a French\nreview, we cannot but point out the frankly hostile attitude of these\nwriters to all the excesses of Chauvinism. The articles of Max Scheler,\n\"Europe and the War,\" show an impartial attitude which is entirely\npraiseworthy. The review opens its columns to the loyal Annette Kolb,\nwho, as the daughter of a German father and of a French mother, suffers\nkeenly in this conflict between the parts of her nature, and has lately\nraised a tempest in Dresden, where in a public lecture she had the\ncourage to admit her fidelity to both sides, and to express her regret\nthat Germany should fail to understand France. In the February number,\nunder the title \"Ganz niedrich h\u00e4ngen!\" there appeared a violent\nrepudiation of the _Krieg mit dem Maul_ (the war of tongues); \"_If\njournalists hope to inspire courage by insulting the enemy, they are\nmistaken--we refuse such stimulants. We dare to maintain our opinion,\nthat the humblest volunteer of the enemy, who from an unreasoned but\nexalted sentiment of patriotism, fires upon us from an ambush, knowing\nwell what he risks, is much superior to those journalists who profit by\nthe public feeling of the day, and under cover of high-sounding words of\npatriotism do not fight the enemy but spit upon him._\"\n\nOf all these young writers who are striving to preserve the integrity of\ntheir minds against the force of national passions, the one whose\npersonality has been most exalted by this tempest, the most eloquent,\ncourageous, and decided of all is Wilhelm Herzog. He is the editor of\nthe _Forum_ at Munich, and like our own P\u00e9guy, when he began to publish\nhis _Cahiers de la Quinzaine_, he fills almost the whole of his review\nwith his own burning articles. The enthusiastic biographer of H. von\nKleist, he sees and judges the events of his own time with the eyes of\nthat indomitable spirit. The German censor attempts in vain to silence\nhim and to forbid the publication of the lectures of Spitteler and of\nAnnette Kolb; his indignation and cries of vengeful irony spread even to\nus. He attacks bitterly the ninety-three intellectuals who \"_fancy they\nare all Ajaxes because they bray the loudest_,\" those politicians of the\nschool of Haeckel, who make a new division of the world, those patriotic\nbards who insult other nations; he attacks Thomas Mann mercilessly,\nscoffs at his sophistry, and defends France, the French Army,[33] and\nFrench civilization against him; he points out that the great men of\nGermany (Gr\u00fcnwald, D\u00fcrer, Bach, and Mozart amongst others) have always\nbeen persecuted, humiliated, and calumniated.[34] In an article entitled\n\"_Der neue Geist_,\"[35] after having scoffed at the banality that has\nreappeared in the German theaters, and the literary mediocrity of\npatriotic productions, he asked where this \"new spirit\" may be found,\nand this gives him an opportunity to demolish Ostwald and Lasson.\n\n\"_Where is it to be found? In the Hochschulen? Have we not read that\nincredibly clumsy_ (unwahrscheinlich plumpen) _appeal of the 99\nprofessors? Have we not appreciated the statements of that double\ncentenarian_ (des zweihundertj\u00e4hrige Mummelgreises) _mummy Lasson? When\nI was studying philosophy as an undergraduate at the University of\nBerlin, the theatre in which he lectured was a place of amusement_\n(Lachkabinett) _for us--nothing more. And today people take him\nseriously! English, French, and Italian papers print his senile\nbabblings against Holland, as typical of the_ Stimmung _of the German\nintellectuals. The wrong that these privy councillors and professors\nhave done us with their Aufkl\u00e4rungsarbeit can hardly be measured. They\nhave isolated themselves from humanity by their inability to realize the\nfeelings of others._\"\n\nIn opposition to these false representatives of a nation, these cultured\ngossips and political adventurers, he extols the silent ones, the great\nmass of the people of all nations who suffer in silence; and he joins\nwith them in \"the invisible community of sorrow.\"\n\n\"_One who is suffering and knows that his sorrow is shared by millions\nof other beings, will bear it calmly; he will accept it willingly even,\nbecause he knows that he is enriched thereby, made stronger, more\ntender, more humane._\"[36]\n\nAnd he quotes the words of old Meister Eckehart: \"_Suffering is the\nfastest steed that will bear you to perfection._\"\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nAt the close of this summary review of the young writers of the war, a\nplace must be found for those whom the war has crushed--they counted\namongst the best. Ernst Stadler was an enthusiastic admirer of French\nart and of the French spirit. He translated Francis Jammes, and on the\neve of his death, in November, he was writing to Stefan Zweig from the\ntrenches about the poems of Verlaine, which he was translating. The\nunfortunate George Trakl, the poet of melancholy, was made lieutenant of\na sanitary column in Galicia, and the sight of so much suffering drove\nhim to despair and death. And there are many hidden tragedies, still\nunrevealed. When they are made known, humanity will tremble in\ncontemplating its handiwork.\n\nI reflected, as doubtless many of my French readers have also done, in\nreading through these German writings inspired by the war--writings\nthrough which from time to time there passes a mighty breath of revolt\nand sorrow--that our young writers are not writing \"literature.\" Instead\nof books they give us deeds, and their letters. And in re-reading some\nof their letters I thought that ours had chosen the better part. It is\nnot for me now to point out the position that this heroic correspondence\nwill occupy, not only in our history but also in our literature. Into it\nthe flower of our youth has put all its life, its faith and its genius:\nand for some of those letters I would give many of the finest lines of\nthe noblest poems. Whatever be the result of this war, and the opinion\nas to its value later, it will be recognized that France has written on\npaper, mud-stained and often blotted with blood, some of its sublimest\npages. Assuredly this war touches us more nearly than it does our\nadversaries, for who of us would have the heart to write a play or a\nnovel whilst his country is in danger and his brothers dying?\n\nBut I will make no comparisons between the two nations. For the present\nthe essential thing is to show that even in Germany there are certain\nfiner minds who are fighting against the spirit which we hate--the\nspirit of grasping imperialism and inhuman pride, of military caste and\nthe megalomania of pedants. They are but a minority--we have no\nillusions about that--and we ought to redouble our efforts on that\naccount to vanquish the common enemy. Why then should we trouble to make\nthese generous but feeble voices heard? Because their merit is the\ngreater for being so little heeded; because it is the duty of those who\nare fighting for justice to render justice in their turn to all those\nmen, even when they dwell in a country in which the state represents the\nviolation of right by _Faustrecht_, who are defending with us the spirit\nof liberty.\n\n_Journal de Gen\u00e8ve_, April 19, 1915.\n\n\n\n\nXV. THE MURDER OF THE \u00c9LITE\n\n\nThe phrase is not new-coined today;[37] but the fact is. Never in any\nperiod, have we seen humanity throwing into the bloody arena all its\nintellectual and moral reserves, its priests, its thinkers, its\nscholars, its artists, the whole future of the spirit--wasting its\ngeniuses as food for cannon.\n\nA great thing, doubtless, when the struggle is great, when a people\nfights for an eternal cause, the fervor of which fires the whole nation,\nfrom the smallest to the greatest; when it fuses all the egoisms,\npurifies desire, and out of many souls makes one unanimous soul. But if\nthe cause be suspect or if it is tainted (as we judge that of our\nadversaries to be), what will be the situation of a moral \u00e9lite which\nhas preserved the sad and lofty privilege of perceiving at least a part\nof the truth, and which must nevertheless fight and die and kill for a\nfaith which it doubts?\n\nThose passionate natures that are intoxicated by fighting or are\nvoluntarily blinded by the necessities of action are not troubled by\nthese questions. For them the enemy is a single mass; nothing else\nexists for them but this, for they have to break it; it is their\nfunction and their duty. And to each his special duty. But if minorities\ndo not exist for such men, they do exist for us who, since we are not\nfighting, have the liberty and the duty to see every aspect of the\ncase--we who form part of the eternal minority, the minority which has\nbeen, is, and always will be eternally oppressed. It is for us to hear\nand to proclaim these moral sufferings! Plenty of others repeat or\ninvent the jubilant echoes of the struggle. May other voices be raised\nto give the tragic accents of the fight and its sacred horror!\n\nI shall take my examples from the enemy camp, for several reasons:\nbecause the German cause being from the first tainted with injustice,\nthe sufferings of the few who are just, and the still fewer who have\nspiritual perceptions are greater there than elsewhere; because these\nevidences appear openly in publications whose boldness the German\ncensorship has not perceived; because I bow with respect to the heroic\ndiscipline of silence which France in fighting imposes on her\nsufferings. (Would to God that this silence were not broken by those\nwho, trying to deny these sufferings, profane the grandeur of the\nsacrifice by the revolting levity of their silly jests in newspapers\nwhich are without either gravity or dignity.)\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nI have shown in the last chapter that a part of the intellectual youth\nof Germany was far from sharing the war-madness of its elders. I cited\ncertain energetic reproofs delivered by these young writers to the\ntheorists of imperialism. And these writers are not, as one might think\nfrom an article in the _Temps_ (though I gladly pay a tribute to its\nhonesty), merely a small group as narrow as that of our symbolists. They\ncount among them writers who appeal to a large public and who do not set\nout in any way (except for the group of Stefan George) to write for a\n_select few_--they wish to write for all. I stated, too, that the\nboldest review of all, Wilhelm Herzog's _Forum_, was read in the German\ntrenches and received approbation thence.\n\nBut what is more astonishing, this spirit of criticism has possessed\nsome of the combatants and even made its appearance among German\nofficers. In the November-December number of the _Friedens-Warte_,\npublished in Berlin, Vienna, and Leipzig, by Dr. Alfred H. Fried, there\noccurs \"An appeal to the Germanic peoples,\" addressed, at the end of\nOctober, by Baron Marschall von Biberstein, Landrat of Prussia and\ncaptain in the 1st Foot Guards reserve. This article was written in a\ntrench north of Arras, where on the 11th of November, Biberstein was\nkilled. He expresses unreservedly his horror of the war and his ardent\ndesire that it may be the last: \"_That is the conviction of those at the\nfront who are witnesses of the unspeakable horrors of modern warfare._\"\nEven more praiseworthy is Biberstein's frankness when he decides to\nbegin a confession and a _mea culpa_ for the sins of Germany. \"_The war\nhas opened my eyes_,\" he says, \"_to our terrible unlovableness\n(Unbeliebtheit). Everything has its cause; we must have given cause for\nthis hatred; and even in part have justified it.... Let us hope that it\nwill not be the least of the advantages of this war that Germany will\nturn round on herself, will search out and recognize her faults and\ncorrect them._\" Unfortunately even this article is spoiled by Germanic\npride which, desiring a world peace, sets out to impose it on the world.\nHerein it recalls in some respects the bellicose pacifism of the too\ncelebrated Ostwald.\n\nBut another officer (of whom I spoke in my last chapter) the poet Fritz\nvon Unruh, first Lieutenant of Uhlans on the western front, has written\ndramatic scenes in verse and prose. These have appeared recently under\nthe title _Before the Decision (Vor der Entscheidung)_. It is a dramatic\npoem in which the author has noted his own impressions and his moral\ntransformations. The hero, who like himself, is an officer of Uhlans,\npasses through various centers of the war and remains everywhere a\nstranger; his soul is detached from murderous passions, he sees the\nabominable reality until his sufferings from it amount to agony. The two\nscenes reproduced by the _Neue Z\u00fcrcher Zeitung_ show us a muddy and\nbloodstained trench, where German soldiers, like beasts in a\nslaughter-house, die or await death with bitter words--and officers\ngetting drunk on champagne around a 42mm. mortar, laughing and getting\nexcited till they fall beneath the weight of sleep and fatigue.\n\nFrom the first scene I take these terrible words of one of those who\nwait in the trenches under fire of the machine guns, a _Dreissigj\u00e6hriger_\n(man of thirty).\n\n     In my village they are laughing--they drink to each victory. They\n     slaughter us like butcher's cattle--and they say \"It's war!\" When\n     it is over, they are no fools, they will feast us for three years.\n     But the first cripple won't be grey headed before they will laugh\n     at his white hairs.\n\nAnd the Uhlan, possessed by horror in the midst of the massacre, falls\non his knees and prays:\n\n     Thou who gavest life and takest it--how shall I recognize Thee? (In\n     these trenches strewn with mutilated bodies) I find Thee not. Does\n     the piercing cry of these thousands suffocated in the terrible\n     embrace of Death reach not up to Thee? Or is it lost in frozen\n     space? For whom does Thy Springtime blossom? For whom is the\n     splendor of Thy suns? For whom, O God? I ask it of thee in the name\n     of all those whose mouths are closed by courage and by fear in face\n     of the horror of Thy darkness: What heat is left within me? What\n     light of truth? Can this massacre be Thy will? Is it indeed Thy\n     will?\n\n(_He loses consciousness and falls._)\n\nA pain less lyrical, less ecstatic, more simple, more reflective, and\nnearer to ourselves marks the sequence of _Feldpostbriefe_ of Dr. Albert\nKlein, teacher in the Oberrealschule at Giessen and Lieutenant of the\nLandwehr, killed on the 12th of February in Champagne.[38] Passing over\nwhat are, perhaps, the most striking pages from the point of view of\nartistic quality and power of thought, I will only give two extracts\nfrom these letters which are likely to be of special interest to French\nreaders.\n\nThe first describes for us with an unusual frankness the moral condition\nof the German army:\n\n     Brave, without care for his own life! Who is there among us that is\n     that? We all know too well our own worth and our own possibilities;\n     we are in the flower of our age: force is in our arms and in our\n     souls; and as no one willingly dies, no one is brave (_tapfer_) in\n     the usual sense of the word: or at least such are very rare. It is\n     just because bravery is so rare in life, it is just for that that\n     we expend so much religion, poetry, and thought (and this begins\n     already at school), in celebrating as the highest fate death for\n     one's fatherland, until it attains its climax in the false heroism\n     which makes such a sensation about us in newspapers and speeches\n     and which is so cheap--and also in the true heroism of a small\n     number who do risk themselves and lead on the others.... We do our\n     duty, we do what we _ought_; but it is a passive virtue.... When I\n     read in the papers the scribblings of those who have a bad\n     conscience because they are safely in the rear--when I read this\n     talk which makes every soldier into a hero, I feel hurt. Heroism\n     is a rare growth, and you cannot build on it a citizen army. To\n     keep such an army together the men must respect their superiors,\n     and even fear them more than the enemy. And the superiors must be\n     conscientious, do their duty well, know their business thoroughly,\n     decide rapidly, and have control of their nerves. When we read the\n     praises which those behind the line write of us, we blush. Thank\n     God, old-fashioned, robust shame is not dead in us.... Ah! my dear\n     friends, those who are here don't speak so complacently of death,\n     of disease, of sacrifice, and of victory as do those who behind the\n     line ring the bells, make speeches, and write newspapers. The men\n     here accustom themselves as best they may to the bitter necessity\n     of suffering and of death if fate wills; but they know and see that\n     many noble sacrifices, innumerable, innumerable sacrifices have\n     already been made, and that already for a long while we shall have\n     had more than enough of destruction on our side as well as the\n     other. It is precisely when one has to look suffering in the face\n     as I have that a tie begins to be formed that unites one to those\n     over there, on the other side (and one that unites you too with\n     them, my friends! Yes, surely you feel it too, don't you?) If I\n     come back from here (which I scarcely hope for any more) my dearest\n     duty will be to soak myself in the study and the thoughts of those\n     who have been our enemies. I wish to reconstruct my nature on a\n     wider basis.... And I believe that it will be easier after this war\n     than after any other to be a human being.\n\nThe second fragment is the account of a touching encounter with a French\nprisoner:\n\n     Yesterday evening I was strangely touched. I happened to see a\n     convoy of prisoners and I talked to one of them, a colleague of\n     mine, Professor of classical philology in the college of F----.\n     Such an open-minded, intelligent man, and with such a fine military\n     bearing, like all his fellows, although they had just been through\n     a terrible experience of machine-gun fire.... It was a proof to me\n     of the senselessness of the war. I thought how much one would have\n     liked to be the friend of these men, who are so near us in their\n     education, their mode of life, the circle of their thought and\n     their interest. We started talking about a book on Rousseau and we\n     began to dispute like old philologists.... How much we are alike in\n     force and worth! And how little truth there is in what our papers\n     tell us of the shaken and exhausted conditions of the French\n     troops! As true, or rather as untrue, as what the French newspapers\n     write about us.... My French colleague showed in his remarks such a\n     balanced mind and such understanding and admiration of German\n     thought! To think that we were made so clearly to be friends and\n     that we had to be separated! I was altogether overcome, and sat\n     down crushed by it. I thought and thought and could not escape my\n     mood by any sophistry. No end, no end to war, which for nearly six\n     months now has swallowed in its gulf men, fortunes, and happiness!\n     And this feeling is the same with us as with the other side. It is\n     always the same picture: we do the same thing, we suffer the same\n     thing, we are the same thing. And it is precisely for this reason\n     that we are so bitterly at enmity....\n\nThe same accent of troubled anguish, together with a despair which at\nmoments nearly reaches to madness, and at others breathes a religious\nfervor, are seen in the letters of a German soldier to a teacher in\nGerman Switzerland. (We have known of these at the Prisoners' Agency for\nthree or four months and they were published in _Foi et Vie_ of April\n15th.[39] They have been passed over in silence, so we shall persist in\ncalling attention to them, for they thoroughly deserve it). In these\nletters, which cover from the second fortnight of August to the end of\nDecember, we see from the 25th of August onwards the evidence of a\ndesire for peace among the German soldiers.\n\n     We all, even those who were hottest for the fight at the beginning,\n     want nothing now but peace, our officers just as much as\n     ourselves.... Convinced as we are of the necessity to conquer,\n     warlike enthusiasm does not exist among us; we fulfil our duty, but\n     the sacrifice is hard. We suffer in our souls.... I cannot tell you\n     the sufferings I endure....\n\n     September 20th. A friend writes to me: \"On the 20th to 25th of\n     August I took part in big battles; since then I suffer morally even\n     to complete exhaustion, both physical and spiritual. My soul finds\n     no repose.... This war will show us how much of the beast still\n     survives in man, and this revelation will cause us to make a great\n     step out of animalism: if not, it is all up with us!\"\n\n     November 28th. (_A splendid passage where one almost hears the\n     voice of Tolstoi._) What are all the torments of war compared to\n     the thoughts that obsess us night and day? When I am on some hill\n     from which my view commands the plain, this is the idea which\n     ceaselessly tortures me: down there in the valley the war rages;\n     those brown lines which furrow the landscape are full of men who\n     are facing one another as enemies. And up there on the hill\n     opposite you there is, perhaps, a man who, like you, is\n     contemplating the woods and the blue sky and perhaps ruminating the\n     same thoughts as you, his enemy! This continual proximity might\n     make one mad! And one is tempted to envy one's comrades who can\n     kill time in sleeping and playing cards.\n\n     December 17th. The desire for peace is intense in every one; at\n     least, in all those who are at the front and who are obliged to\n     assassinate and be assassinated. The newspapers say that it's\n     hardly possible to restrain the warlike ardor of the fighters....\n     They lie--consciously or unconsciously. Our chaplains in their\n     sermons dispute the legend that our military ardor is\n     slackening.... You can hardly believe how such tittle-tattle annoys\n     us. Let them be silent, and let them not talk about things of which\n     they can know nothing! Or better still, let them come not as\n     almoners who keep to the rear, but into the firing-line, rifle in\n     hand! Perhaps then they will get to know of the inner changes which\n     take place in so many of us. According to these chaplains, any one\n     who is without warlike enthusiasm is not a man such as our age\n     demands. To me it seems that we are greater heroes than the others,\n     we, who without being upheld by warlike enthusiasm, accomplish\n     faithfully our duty, while hating war with our whole souls.... They\n     talk of a holy war ... I know of no holy war. I only know of one\n     war which is the sum of all that is inhuman, impious, and bestial\n     in man; it is God's chastisement and a call to repentance for the\n     people that throws itself into war or lets itself be drawn into it.\n     God sends men through this hell so that they may learn to love\n     heaven. For the German people this war seems to me to be a\n     punishment and a call to repentance,--and most of all for our\n     German Church. I have friends who suffer at the idea of being\n     unable to do anything for the fatherland. Let them stay at home\n     with a calm conscience! All depends on their peaceful work. But let\n     the war enthusiasts come! Perhaps they will learn to keep silent.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\"Why publish these pages?\" I shall be asked by some people in France.\n\"What good is it, when once war is let loose, to arouse pity for our\nadversaries, at the risk of blunting the ardor of the combatants?\"--I\nanswer, because it is the truth, and because the truth substantiates our\njudgment, the judgment of the whole world against the German leaders and\ntheir policy. What their armies have done we know; but that they were\nable to do it containing as they did such elements as those whose\nconfessions we have just heard, incriminates still more deeply their\nmasters. From the depths of the battlefield, these voices of a\nsacrificed minority rise up as a vengeful condemnation of the\noppressors. To the accusations drawn up against predatory Empires and\ntheir inhuman pride, in the name of violated right, of outraged humanity\nby the victim peoples and by the combatants, is added the cry of pain of\nthe nobler souls of their own people whom the bad shepherds who let\nloose this war have led and constrained into murder and madness. To\nsacrifice one's body is not the worst suffering, but also to sacrifice,\nto deny, to kill one's own soul!--You who die at least for a just cause,\nand who, full of sap and loaded with faith, fall like ripe fruit, how\nsweet is your lot beside this torture! But we shall so act that these\nsufferings shall not be vain.\n\nLet the conscience of humanity hear and accept their complaint! It will\nresound in the future above the glory of battles; and whether she wills\nor no, History will place it on her register. History will do justice\nbetween the hangmen and their peoples. And the peoples will learn how to\ndeliver themselves from their hangmen.\n\n_Journal de Gen\u00e8ve_, June 14, 1915.\n\n\n\n\nXVI. JAUR\u00c8S\n\n\nBattles are being fought under our eyes in which thousands of men are\ndying, yet the sacrifice of their lives does not always influence the\nissue of the combat. In other cases the death of a single man may be a\ngreat battle lost for the whole of humanity. The murder of Jaur\u00e8s was\nsuch a disaster.\n\nWhole centuries were needed to produce such a life; rich civilizations\nof North and South, of past and present, spread out on the good soil of\nFrance, matured beneath our Western skies. The mysterious chance which\ncombines elements and forces will not easily produce a noble spirit like\nhis a second time.\n\nJaur\u00e8s is a type, almost unique in modern times, of the great political\norator who is also a great thinker, and who combines vast culture with\npenetrating observation, and moral grandeur with energetic activity. We\nmust go back to antiquity to find one who, like him, could stir the\ncrowd and give pleasure to the few; pour out his overflowing genius not\nonly in his speeches and social treatises, but also in his philosophical\nand historical works;[40] and leave on all things the impress of his\npersonality, the furrow of his robust labor, the seeds of his\nprogressive mind. I have listened to him often in the Chamber, at\nsocialist congresses, at meetings held on behalf of oppressed nations;\nhe even did me the honor of presenting my _Danton_ to the people of\nParis. Again I see his full face, calm and happy like that of a kindly,\nbearded ogre; his small eyes, bright and smiling; eyes as quick to\nfollow the flight of ideas as to observe human nature. I see him pacing\nup and down the platform, walking with heavy steps like a bear, his arms\ncrossed behind his back, and turning sharply to hurl at the crowd, in\nhis monotonous, metallic voice, words like the call of a trumpet, which\nreached the farthest seats in the vast amphitheatre, and went straight\nto the heart, making the soul of the whole multitude leap in one united\nemotion. What beauty there was in the sight of these proletarian masses\nstirred by the visions which Jaur\u00e8s evoked from distant horizons,\nimbibing the thought of Greece through the voice of their tribune!\n\nOf all this man's gifts the most fundamental was to be essentially a\n_man_--not the man of a single profession, or class, or party, or\nidea--but a complete, harmonious, and free man. His all-comprehensive\nnature could be the slave of nothing. The highest manifestations of life\nflowed together and met in him. His intelligence demanded unity,[41] his\nheart was full of a passion for liberty,[42] and this twofold instinct\nprotected him alike from party despotism and anarchy. His spirit sought\nto encompass all things, not in order to do violence to them, but to\nbring them into harmony. Above all, he had the power of seeing the\n_human_ element in all things, and this universal sympathy was equally\naverse to narrow negation and fanatical affirmation. All intolerance\ninspired him with horror.[43]\n\nHe had put himself at the head of a great revolutionary party, but it\nwas with the desire \"of saving the great work of democratic revolution\nfrom the sickening and brutal odor of blood, murder, and hatred which\nstill clings to the memory of the middle-class Revolution.\" In his own\nname, and in the name of his party, he demanded \"with regard to all\ndoctrines, respect for the human personality and for the spirit which is\nmanifested in each.\" The mere feeling of the moral antagonism which\nexists between man and man, even when there is no open conflict, the\nsense of the invisible barriers which render human brotherhood\nimpossible, was painful to him. He could not read those words of\nCardinal Newman in which he speaks of the gulf of damnation, which, even\nin this life, is fixed between men, without having \"a sort of\nnightmare.... He saw the abyss ready to gape beneath the feet of fragile\nand unhappy human beings who think themselves bound together by a\ncommunity of sympathy and suffering\"--the sadness of this thought\nobsessed him.\n\nTo fill in this abyss of misunderstanding was his life-work. Herein lay\nthe originality of his standpoint, that although he was the spokesman of\nthe most advanced parties, he became the continual mediator between\nconflicting ideas. He sought to unite them all in the service of\nprogress and of the common good. In philosophy he united idealism and\nrealism--in history, the past and the present--in politics, the love of\nhis own country and a respect for other countries.[44] He refrained from\ndenouncing that which has been, in the name of that which is to be, as\nmany so-called free-thinkers have done; and far from condemning, he\nupheld the theories of all those who had been fighters in past\ncenturies, to whatever party they might have belonged. \"We reverence the\npast,\" he said. \"Not in vain have blazed the hearths of all the\ngenerations of mankind--but it is we who are advancing, who are\nfighting for a new ideal, it is we who are the true inheritors of the\nhearth of our ancestors. We have taken the flame thereof, you have\npreserved only the ashes.\" (January, 1909.) In his Introduction to\n_l'Histoire socialiste de la R\u00e9volution_, in which he attempts to\nreconcile Plutarch, Michelet, and Karl Marx, he writes: \"We hail with\nequal respect all men of heroic will. History, even when conceived as a\nstudy of economic forms, will never dispense with individual valor and\nnobility. The moral level of society tomorrow will be determined by the\nstandard of morality of conscience today. So that, to offer the examples\nof all the heroic fighters who for the past century have been inspired\nby an ideal and held death in sublime contempt, is to do revolutionary\nwork.\" In everything he touches he achieves a generous synthesis of\nlife; he imposes his grand panoramic conception of the universe, the\nsense of the manifold and moving unity of all things. This admirable\nequilibrium of countless elements presupposes in the man who achieves it\nmagnificent health of body and of mind, a mastery of his whole being.\nAnd Jaur\u00e8s possessed this mastery, and because of it he was the pilot of\nEuropean democracy.\n\nHow clear and far reaching was his foresight! In years to come, when the\nrecord of the war of today is set down, he will appear therein as a\nterrible witness. Was there anything he did not foresee? One needs only\nto read through his speeches during the last ten years.[45] It is yet\ntoo early, in the midst of the conflict, to quote freely his predictions\nconcerning the coming retribution. Let us recall only his agonized\npresentiment, ever since the year 1905, of the monstrous war which was\nimminent;[46] his consciousness \"of the antagonism, now muffled, now\nacute, but always profound and terrible, between Germany and England\"\n(November 18, 1909);[47] his denunciation of the secret dealings of\nEuropean finance and diplomacy, dealings which are encouraged by the\n\"torpor of public spirit\"; his cry of alarm at \"the sensational lies of\nthe press, actuated by the rotten system of capitalism, sowing panic and\nhatred, and playing cynically with the lives of millions of men, through\nmere financial considerations or delirious pride\"; his contemptuous\nwords for those whom he calls \"the jockeys of his country\"; his clear\nperception of all responsibilities;[48] his foreknowledge of the\ndomesticated attitude which would be adopted in case of war by the\nSocial-democratic party of Germany, to whom he showed, as in a mirror\n(at the Amsterdam Congress in 1904) their haughty weakness, their lack\nof revolutionary tradition, their want of parliamentary strength, their\n\"formidable powerlessness\";[49] of the attitude which certain leaders of\nFrench Socialism, too, and amongst others Jules Guesde, would maintain\nin the conflict between the great States of Europe;[50] and, looking\neven beyond the war, his premonition of the consequences, near and\nremote, national and international, of this conflict of nations.\n\nHow would he have acted had he lived? The proletariat of Europe looked\nto him for guidance, and had faith in him--Camille Huysmans has said so\nin the speech delivered at his grave in the name of the Workers'\nInternational.[51] There can be no doubt that when he had fought against\nthe war until all hope of preventing it was gone, he would have yielded\nloyally to the common duty of national defense and taken part in it with\nall his might. He had announced this point of view at the Congress in\nStuttgart, in 1907, in full agreement therein with Vandervelde and\nBebel: \"If, whatever the circumstances, a nation were to refuse from the\noutset to defend itself, it would be entirely at the mercy of the\nGovernments of violence, barbarism, and reaction.... A unity of mankind\nwhich was the result of the absorption of conquered nations by one\ndominating nation would be a unity realized in slavery.\" On his return\nto Paris, in giving an account of the Congress to French Socialists\n(September 7, 1907, at the Tivoli Vaux-Hall), he impressed upon them\ntheir double duty--war against war, so long as it is only a menace upon\nthe horizon, and in the hour of danger war in defense of national\nindependence. For this great European was also a great Frenchman.[52]\nYet it is certain, too, that the firm accomplishment of his patriotic\nduty would not have prevented him from maintaining his human ideals, and\nwatching with untiring eyes for every opportunity of reconstructing the\nshattered unity. Certainly he would not have allowed the vessel of\nsocialism to drift, as his feeble successors have done.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nHe has passed from us. But the reflection of his luminous genius, his\nkindness in the bitter struggle, his indestructible optimism even in the\nmidst of disaster, shine above the carnage of Europe, over which the\ndusk is gathering, like the splendor of the setting sun.\n\nThere is one page which he wrote, which cannot be read without\nemotion--an immortal page in which he represents the noble Herakles,\nresting after his labors on the maternal earth:\n\n\"There are hours,\" he says, \"when in feeling the earth beneath our feet,\nwe experience a joy deep and tranquil as the earth herself. How often\non my journey along footpaths and across fields I have realized suddenly\nthat it was indeed the earth on which I trod, that I belonged to her, as\nshe belonged to me! Then without thinking I went more slowly, because it\nwas not worth while to hasten across her surface, because I was\nconscious of her and possessed her at each step I took, and my soul was\nmoving within her depths. How many times at the fall of day, as I lay by\nthe side of a ditch, my eyes turned towards the faint blue of the\neastern sky, I have suddenly realized that the earth was speeding on her\njourney hastening from the fatigues of the day and the limited horizons\nwhich the sun illumines, and rushing with prodigious force towards the\nserenity of night and unlimited horizons, and bearing me with her. I\nfelt in my body as in my soul, and in the earth herself as in my body,\nthe thrill of this journey, and a strange sweetness in those blue spaces\nwhich opened out before us, without a shock, without a fold, without a\nmurmur. Oh! how much deeper and more intense is this kinship of our\nflesh with the earth, than the vague and wandering kinship of our eyes\nwith the starry heavens. How much less beautiful the night with its\nstars would be to us, did we not feel ourselves at the same time bound\nto the earth.\"\n\nHe has returned to the earth--that earth which belonged to him, that\nearth to which he belonged. They have again taken possession of each\nother, and his spirit is even now warming and humanizing her. Beneath\nthe torrents of blood shed upon his tomb the new life and the peace of\ntomorrow are already springing. It was a favorite and often repeated\nthought of Jaur\u00e8s, as of Heraclitus of old, that nothing can interrupt\nthe flow of things, that \"peace is only a form or aspect of war, war\nonly a form or aspect of peace, and what is conflict today is the\nbeginning of the reconciliation of tomorrow.\"\n\nR. R.\n\n_Journal de Gen\u00e8ve_, August 2, 1915.\n\n\n\n\nNOTES\n\n\nTO PAGE 19 (\"LETTER TO GERHART HAUPTMANN\")\n\nThe letter to Gerhart Hauptmann, written after the destruction of\nLouvain, and in the stress of the emotion aroused by the first news, was\nprovoked by a high-sounding article of Hauptmann which appeared a few\ndays previously. In that letter he rebutted the accusation of barbarism\nhurled against Germany, and returned it ... against Belgium. The article\nended as follows:\n\n\" ... I assure M. Maeterlinck that no one in Germany thinks of imitating\nthe act of his 'civilized nation.' We prefer to be and to remain the\nGerman barbarians for whom the women and the children of our enemies are\nsacred. I can assure him that we never thoughtlessly massacre and make\nmartyrs of Belgian women and children. Our witnesses are on our\nfrontiers; the socialist beside the bourgeois, the peasant beside the\nsavant, and the prince beside the workman: and all fight with a full\nrealization of the object, for a noble and rich national treasure, for\ninternal and external goods which aid the progress and the ascent of\nhumanity.\"\n\n\nTO PAGE 41 (\"ABOVE THE BATTLE\")\n\nMy enemies have not failed to make use of this passage to attribute to\nme sentiments of contempt with regard to the peoples of Asia and Africa.\nThis charge is all the less justified in that I have precious\nfriendships amongst the intellectuals of Asia, with whom I have remained\nin correspondence during this war. These friends have been so little\nmisled as to my real thought that one of them, a leading Hindu writer,\nAnanda Coomaraswamy, has dedicated to me an admirable essay which\nappeared in the _New Age_ (December 1914), entitled \"A World Policy for\nIndia,\" but--\n\n1. Asiatic troops, recruited amongst races of professional warriors, in\nno way represent the thought of Asia, as Coomaraswamy agrees.\n\n2. The heroism of the troops of Africa and Asia is not under discussion.\nThere was no need for the hecatombs, which have been made during the\npast year, to evoke admiration for their splendid devotion.\n\n3. As regards barbarism, I am glad to confess that now the \"white-skins\"\ncan no longer reproach \"skins, black, red, or yellow\" in this respect.\n\n4. It is not the latter but the former whom I blame. I denounce today\nonce more with as much vigor as fourteen months ago, the short-sighted\npolicy which has introduced Africa and Asia[53] into the quarrels of\nEurope. The future will justify my indictment.\n\nR. R.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nPRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.\n\n\n\n\nINDEX\n\n\nAbattoir of Ypres and Dixmude, the, 103.\n\nAbsurdity, a ferocious, 47.\n\nAcademicians and Professoren, the voice of, 153.\n\nAcademy of moral science, the, 44.\n\nAddress to the Civilized Nations, 60.\n\nAdor, M. Gustave, 83.\n\nAdversary, A Frenchman does not judge his, unheard, 17, 31.\n\n_Agence internationale des prisonniers de guerre_, 83.\n\nAjax, the madness of, 78.\n\nAlbert, King, 93.\n\nAllies, the, 73, 98.\n\nAllophyles, 44.\n\nAngell, Norman, 137.\n\nApostles, rival, 45.\n\nArchitecture like Rheims, a piece of, 24.\n\nArchbishop of Canterbury, 12, 145.\n\nArguments, furious, 119.\n\nArmies of the Marne and Meuse, 40.\n\nArt, 16.\n\nAryan race, 44.\n\nAsia and Africa, forces of, 99;\n  ethnological signification of the terms of, 194.\n\nAtrocities committed in Flanders, 25;\n  in Russia, 70.\n\nAttila, 21.\n\n_Auskunfts- und Hilfsstelle f\u00fcr Deutsche im Ausland und Ausl\u00e4nder\n  in Deutschland_, 146.\n\nAusterlitz, 45.\n\nAustria, 50.\n\nAuthors of these wars, criminal, 42.\n\n\nBabut, C. E., 76.\n\nBach, 44, 163.\n\nBaker, M. P., J. Allen-, 145.\n\nBanking and war, the justification of, 110.\n\nBaptism of blood, 152.\n\nBarbarians from the poles and those from the equator, 41, 44.\n\nBarr\u00e8s, 44.\n\nBaumgarten, D., 146.\n\nBebel, 189.\n\nBees of Holy Writ, the, 91.\n\nBeethoven, 58.\n\nBehring, 61.\n\nBelgium, the neutrality of noble, 20, 87, 93, 94.\n\nBennett, E. K., 12.\n\nBergson, 43.\n\nBishops, 46.\n\nBismarck, Prince, 45.\n\nBlind loyalty, 26.\n\nBloody soil, 18.\n\nBonfire, stirring up the, 42.\n\nBooks of every kind and of every color, 77.\n\nBoris Godunov, 59.\n\nBrotherhood, 16, 101.\n\nBrueghel, the stumbling blind men of, 30.\n\nBucher, Dr., of Strasbourg, 104.\n\nBull in the arena, a, 28.\n\n\nC\u00e6sar, 121.\n\n_Cambridge Magazine, The_, 11.\n\nCardinals, 46.\n\nCaste, a military and feudal, 50.\n\nCatalonia, the thinkers of, 122.\n\nCatechism of Force, 139.\n\nCensor, the German, 163.\n\nCentral Bureau, the, 146.\n\nChamberlain, H. S., 28.\n\nChauvinism, 38, 147, 160.\n\nChristianity and socialism, 45.\n\nChristians of today, 48.\n\nCingalese, 41.\n\nCity of God, 54.\n\nCivilization, the common trunk of our, 16, 41.\n\nCivil war, a, 123.\n\nCombatants, compassion and kindness between the, 101.\n\nCombats, strange, 43.\n\nComparisons between the two nations, 167.\n\nCongress in Stuttgart in 1907, the, 189.\n\nContagion, can we not resist this, 47.\n\nCoomaraswamy, Ananda, 194.\n\nCorn\u00e9lienne, 100.\n\nCorrevon, Rev. Ch., 110.\n\nCosmic force, 11.\n\nCossack avalanche, the, 37, 41.\n\nCoster, Charles de, 95.\n\nCourtney, Lord and Lady, of Penwith, 145.\n\nCubism, 160.\n\nCyclone, the, 46.\n\nCzarism, the ravenous greed of, 50, 60.\n\n\nDanger for Europe, grave, 99.\n\nD'Annunzio, 44.\n\nDante, 25.\n\nDehmel, 44, 61, 154.\n\n\"_Der neue Geist_,\" 163.\n\nDestiny of nations, 10.\n\nDe Unamuno, Miguel, 29.\n\n_Deutschland \u00dcber Alles_, 44.\n\nDickinson, Lowes, 10.\n\nDickinson, Right-Hon. W. H., 145.\n\nDilettantism, neronian, 47.\n\nDogs of war, the, 2.\n\nDollfus, M. Max., 83.\n\nDon Quixote, 95.\n\nDostoievsky, 59, 61.\n\nDryander, Dr. Ernst, 76.\n\nDunois, Am\u00e9d\u00e9e, 14.\n\nD\u00fcrer, 163.\n\nDutch Anti-War Council, 127.\n\nDuty, to seek truth in the midst of error, 26, 169.\n\n\nEagles, the three rapacious, 50.\n\nEckehart, Meister, 165.\n\nEgyptians, 41.\n\nElite of the World, the, 23.\n\nEmergency committee for the assistance of Germans, Austrians, 144.\n\nEmerson's, a saying of, 117.\n\nEnemies, \"for a year I (Rolland) have been rich in,\" 18.\n\nEngland, all the hatred is turned against, 102, 145.\n\nEnthusiasm, heroic, earnest, and even religious, 38.\n\nEphebi of old calmly going to sacrifice, the, 39.\n\nEpic, this monstrous, 43.\n\nEpidemic of homicidal fury, an, 43.\n\nEsthonian nations, 66.\n\nEucken, 43.\n\nEurope, a mutilated, 43, 123.\n\nEycks, Van, 95.\n\n\nFaith in the virtues of one's own nation, 133.\n\nFatality, 20; of war, 42.\n\nFather, all men are sons of the same, 106.\n\nFatherland, our earthly, 54.\n\nFinns, the, 67.\n\nFerri\u00e8re, M. Adolphe, 89, 168.\n\nFlogged, the privilege of being, 70.\n\nFoerster, Professor W., 146.\n\nFram, Andrea, 156.\n\nFrance is ruined, if, 20;\n  the true, 98;\n  sublime history, 166.\n\nFrank, 45.\n\nFratricidal struggle, 90.\n\nFried, Dr. Alfred H., 171.\n\nFriendly relations exist between the prisoners and their guards, 81.\n\nFry, Mr. Roger, 11.\n\nFuneral pyre, Europe ascending its, 41.\n\n\nGalilean barque, the, 143.\n\nGeorge, Stefan, 159, 170.\n\nGerman prisoners concentrated in France, 81;\n  my, friends, 99.\n\nGermany, 19;\n  intellectual \u00e9lite of, 25;\n  Kultur, 28;\n  great minds of, 30, 31;\n  and England, 187.\n\nGod, the great captain, 46.\n\nGoethe, our, 19, 58.\n\nGondolf, Friedr., 29.\n\nGood and evil, the eternal struggle between, 78.\n\nGorki, 61.\n\nGreatness, intellectual and moral, 19.\n\nGrodtken, 58.\n\nGr\u00fcnwald, 163.\n\nGuesde, Jules, 188.\n\nGuilbeaux, Henri, 14.\n\n\nHaeckel, Professor Ernst, 61, 113, 160.\n\nHague Court, the, 52.\n\nHallucinations, passionate, 26.\n\nHangmen, the people will learn how to deliver themselves from their, 180.\n\nHarden, Maximilian, 115.\n\nHarmony of races, a, 55.\n\nHarrach, Helene Gr\u00e6fin, 146.\n\nHatred, the wounds of, 91, 100.\n\nHauptmann, 19, 43, 61, 98, 155.\n\nHerakles, 190.\n\nHercules, 41.\n\nHeretics, 56.\n\nHerv\u00e9, 45.\n\nHerzog, Wilhelm, 57, 163, 170.\n\nHesse, Hermann, 157.\n\nHigh Court, a moral, 51.\n\nHildebrand, 61.\n\nHistory will pass judgment on each of the nations at war, 15.\n\nHoly Guillotine, 110.\n\nHoly War against Russia, a, 65.\n\nHolz, Arno, 155.\n\nHonor of their state, to defend the, 26.\n\nHugo, Victor, 120.\n\nHuman Mind, the force of, 2.\n\nHumanity is a symphony of great collective souls, 54.\n\nHumperdinck, 61.\n\nHungarians in distress, 145.\n\nHuns, the, 22.\n\nHuysmans, Camille, 188.\n\n\nIdealism and German force, 35.\n\nIdeas have no existence in themselves, 118.\n\nIdols, the history of humanity is the history of, 108.\n\nImperialism, military, financial, feudal, republican, social\n  or intellectual, 50, 98.\n\nImperial Rome, 48.\n\nInsulted without even a hearing, 16.\n\nIntellectual \u00e9lite of Russia, the, 60.\n\nIntellectual leaders, Europe's, 8.\n\nIntellectuals, guilty, 26;\n  of Germany, 22;\n  the criminal determination of ninety-three, 28;\n  provide terrible examples of hatred, 82;\n  French, 116;\n  the furious, 151.\n\nIntelligence of the mind, 120.\n\nIntelligent few, the, 109.\n\nInternationalism, intellectual, 111.\n\nInternational union of women suffrage societies, 146.\n\nInvisible tribunal of humanity, 53.\n\nIdeologues, 2.\n\nInvocation to Peace, 158.\n\nIslam, threats of disturbance in the world of, 99.\n\n\nJapanese, 41.\n\nJaur\u00e8s, 11;\n  a favorite thought of, 192;\n  democracy, 186;\n  the murder of, 181.\n\nJean-Christophe, 8.\n\nJena, the bells of, 33.\n\nJesuits, 46.\n\nJesus, 15.\n\nJournalists, 162.\n\nJupiter of the Vatican, 48.\n\nJustice to small nations, 74.\n\n\nKalish, 58.\n\nKant, sons of, 31, 37.\n\nKill! Kill! I hate the war, 79.\n\nKipling, 44.\n\nKlein, Dr. Albert, 173.\n\nKlemm, Wilhelm, 159.\n\nKlinger, 61.\n\nKnights-errant of the world, the, 39.\n\nKock, Hans, 159.\n\nKolb, Annette, 162, 163.\n\nKropotkin, 61.\n\nKrupp, 109.\n\nKultur, 28.\n\nKulturtr\u00e4ger, 67.\n\n\nLabor parties did not desire war, 42.\n\n_Lamm, der_, 155.\n\nLamprecht, Karl, 44.\n\n_La Patrie_, 23.\n\nLasson, 164.\n\nLaw is the friend of the weak, 28.\n\nLaws of Nations, the, 52.\n\nLawyers, 7.\n\nLee, Vernon, 137.\n\nLegand, Ren\u00e9, 187.\n\nLeibnitz, 58.\n\nLeonhard, Rudolf, 156.\n\n_Le Paquet du prisonnier de guerre_, 149.\n\nLetter to Romain Rolland, 64.\n\nLetts, the, 66.\n\nLevites, 46.\n\nLiberator, men make a master of every, 108.\n\nLiberty against barbarism, 57.\n\nLiberty, fighting for the awakening of, 38;\n  of the world, 64;\n  the wild violet of, 119.\n\nLiebermann, 61.\n\nLiebknecht, 45.\n\nLife Force, the, 9.\n\nLife, the value of, 53.\n\nLissauer, 155.\n\nLithuanians, 66.\n\nLouvain, 21.\n\nLove of our country, 47.\n\nLuzzatti, 47.\n\n\nMaeterlinck, 95, 193.\n\nMahler, 59.\n\nMaladresse, 29.\n\nMalines, 21.\n\nManifesto of Intellectuals, 27.\n\nMann, Thomas, 28, 113, 163.\n\nMarck, Ludwig, 156.\n\nMarx, Karl, 186.\n\nMaury, M. Lucien, 168.\n\nMedicines for the soul, 91.\n\nMesnil, Jacques, 14.\n\nMeyer, M. Arthur, 46.\n\nMichelet, 186.\n\nMiddle Ages, the great monasteries of the early, 55.\n\nMilitarization of the intellect, 63.\n\nMinds, the effort of great, 107.\n\nMinority vitally interested in maintaining these hatreds, 49.\n\nMiracle, men call the sudden appearance of a hidden reality a, 94.\n\nMobilization of the forces of the pen, this, 60.\n\nModernism, the noble chimera of, 49.\n\nMoerlins, Frau Marie von B\u00fclow-, 146.\n\nMoli\u00e8re, 113.\n\nMoloch, 48, 108.\n\nMoral epidemic, 11.\n\nMoral triumph, France has won in this war a prodigious, 100.\n\nMoroccans, 41.\n\nMozart, 163.\n\n\nNations subject to Russia are asking agonized questions, 73.\n\nNatorp, Paul, 146.\n\n\"Necessity knows no law,\" 31.\n\n_Nederlandsche Anti-Oorlog Raad_, 127.\n\nNeutral countries are too much effaced, 52.\n\nNeutrality, Belgium's, 34.\n\nNewman, Cardinal, 184.\n\nNewspaper-press of the warring nations, 133.\n\nNewspapers, of both countries give publicity only to prejudiced stories\n  unfavorable to the enemy, 81;\n  jests in, 170;\n  those who behind the line ring the bells, make speeches, and write, 175;\n  they lie--consciously or unconsciously, 178.\n\nNietzsche, 58.\n\nNivernais, my own little town in the, 89.\n\nNordhausen, Richard, 155.\n\n_Notre-Dame la Mis\u00e8re_, 91.\n\n\nOde to a Howitzer, an, 155.\n\nOfficial agencies, 29.\n\nOfficialdom, heroes of, 91.\n\nOmega workshops, the, 12.\n\nOrganization, 111.\n\nOstwald, 28, 111, 164.\n\n\nPaladins of God, the, 39.\n\nPamphleteer, a maladroit, 17.\n\nPangermanism, 68.\n\nPanslavism, 68, 71.\n\nPassion, the language of, 143.\n\nPatrimony of the human race, the, 21.\n\nPatriotism, the true formula of, 185.\n\nPeace, man deteriorates in, 28;\n  armed, 39;\n  of Europe, the, 137.\n\nPedants of Barbarism, 29.\n\nPedants, the megalomania of, 167.\n\nP\u00e9guy, Charles, 31, 32, 37.\n\nPen dipped in blood, a, 79;\n  armies of the, 144.\n\nPerrier, E., 44.\n\nPerrette of the fable, 113.\n\nPetzold, 155.\n\nPioch, Georges, 14.\n\nPlutarch, 186.\n\nPolemics is like a theft from these unfortunates, time devoted to, 98.\n\nPolicy, German, 20.\n\nPontiff, the new, 49.\n\nPope Pius X died of grief to see the outbreak of this war, 48.\n\nPrelude to the great war of the nations, 2.\n\nPrenant, Mr., 52.\n\nPress, the war-preaching French, English and German, 49;\n  an unscrupulous, 80;\n  bullies of the, 91.\n\nPrisoner, the moral situation of the military, 82.\n\nPrisoners, civil, 85;\n  of war, 97;\n  Agency, 177.\n\nPriests are marching with the colors, 46.\n\nProblem of freedom, the, 7.\n\nProtest, the poverty of, 17.\n\nProudhon, 2.\n\nPrussian Imperialism, 26, 50, 57.\n\nPsychologic necessity, 131.\n\nPublic opinion, 53.\n\nPublic safety, the famous doctrine of, 31.\n\nPublicists trying to rouse the energies of the nation, 102.\n\n\nQuestions which divided you, the, 41.\n\n\nRace, the idol of, 108.\n\nRacial frenzy, 48.\n\nRade, Martin, 146.\n\nRappoport, Charles, 187.\n\nReason, the unity of, 16.\n\nRed Cross, the, 82, 88.\n\nRedeemer, the, 33.\n\nReger, 59.\n\nR\u00e9gnier, de, 44.\n\nRenaitour, J. M., 14.\n\nRenan, 53.\n\nRepatriation, 90.\n\nReprisals, a desire for, 100.\n\nResponsible for the longer duration of this horrible war? who are, 134.\n\nRetaliation, 51.\n\nRevolution, an internal, 73.\n\nRheims, 9;\n  Cathedral, 23, 24.\n\nRhine, your neighbors across the, 105.\n\nRiga, 66.\n\nRivalry, the world-wide tragedy of, 128.\n\nRodin, 17.\n\nRoentgen, 61.\n\nRolland, Romain, 8;\n  letters to, 64;\n  attacks against, 97.\n\nRoman Empire at the time of the Tetrarchy, the, 41.\n\nRotten, Dr. Elizabeth, 146.\n\nRouanet, 14.\n\nRubens, 21.\n\nRulers, 42.\n\nRumors circulate only too easily, 80.\n\nRussia, our alliance with, 57;\n  nations subject to, 73;\n  generous promises of, 140.\n\nRussian, autocracy, the, 50;\n  writers have been our guides for the last forty years, 59;\n  the hand of the, Government, 70;\n  evils of, Government, 71;\n  domination very oppressive, 73.\n\n\nSacrifice, the ecstasy of, 32.\n\nSacrilegious conflict, a, 40.\n\nSancho Panza, 95.\n\nSavageries, 21.\n\nScheler, Max, 162.\n\nSchickele, Ren\u00e9, 160.\n\nSchleinitz, Nora Freiin von, 146.\n\nSchneeli, Dr., 81.\n\nSchrenck, 110.\n\nSchultze, Siegmund-, 146.\n\nSeeherrschaft of Britain, 145.\n\nSeippel, M. Paul, 52.\n\nSenegalese, 41.\n\nSepoys, 41.\n\nSermon on the Mount, the, 110.\n\nShaw, Bernard, 43.\n\nShameful record, a, 17.\n\nSikhs, 41.\n\nSilence itself is an act, at such a time, 22;\n  the heroic discipline of France in, 170.\n\nSin, the unpardonable, 32.\n\nSocialism, the leaders of, 40;\n  drifting, 190.\n\nSocialists, German, 45;\n  Italian, 46;\n  unite and attack both Kaiser and Czar, 49.\n\nSociety of friends of foreigners in distress, 146.\n\nSons of sorrow, geniuses are, 34.\n\nSoudanese, 41.\n\nSpirit above flesh, put, 24;\n  is the light, the, 54.\n\nSpiritual forces, 10;\n  guides of the human race, 151.\n\nSport, this bloody and puerile, 42.\n\nStepping-stone, a human, 10.\n\nStern, Josef Luitpol, 155.\n\nSterheim, Carl, 161.\n\nStrauss, 53;\n  Richard, neurotic jugglers with orchestral effects, 59.\n\nStrawinsky, 59.\n\nSudermann, 61.\n\nSwitzerland, 49;\n  the generous heart of, 54.\n\n\nTenderness is wisdom, 157.\n\nTeutonic colossus, the, 47.\n\nThermopyl\u00e6 of Li\u00e8ge, the, 93.\n\nThiesson, Gaston, 14.\n\nThoma, Hans, 29.\n\nTill Ulenspiegel, 95.\n\nTillys, modern, 51.\n\nTokio, 43.\n\nTolstoi, 16, 59.\n\nTrakl, George, 165.\n\nTrustfulness, culpable, 26.\n\nTurks, 41.\n\n\nUebervolk, 78.\n\nUnamuno, Miguel de, 111.\n\nUnderhand means, 42.\n\nUnified Europe, a, 125.\n\nUnion of Democratic Control, 137.\n\nUnited States of Europe, a, 112.\n\nUnity of European Future, 152.\n\n\nValmy, a hero of, 48.\n\nVandervelde, 189.\n\nVerdict of history, the, 132.\n\nVerhaeren, 95.\n\nVices which are profitable, 109.\n\nVictory below means defeat above, 33.\n\nVierordt, Heinrich, 160.\n\nVoltaire, the motto of, 51.\n\nVon Biberstein, Baron Marschall, 171.\n\nVon Unruh, Fritz, 155, 172.\n\n\nWagner, 58.\n\nWar, that lies behind the present conflict, the greater, 10;\n  as a fatality, 20;\n  is war, 30;\n  international, 47;\n  between the Western nations, no reason for, 49;\n  the delightful promise of a perpetual, 105;\n  of the pen, 131.\n\nWarsaw, 54.\n\nWedekind, Franz, 155.\n\nWeingartner, 61.\n\nWells, 43.\n\nWerfel, Franz, 156.\n\nWhitman, Walt, 7;\n  and Tolstoi, 16.\n\nWilliam II, 46.\n\nWolff's Agency, 27.\n\nWood, James, 12.\n\nWorkers' International, the, 188.\n\nWound will heal, a good open clean, 105;\n  wounded of both countries are living in terms of friendship, in\n  Germany and France alike, 82.\n\nWriters, German, 154.\n\nWundt, 44, 61.\n\n\nZangwill, Israel, 137.\n\nZorothowo, 58.\n\nZweig, Stefan, 165.\n\n\nTHE OPEN COURT\n\nINTERNATIONAL SERIES OF BOOKS ON THE GREAT WAR\n\n\n=Above the Battle.= By Romain Rolland. 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In proportion as the immensity of the ruin extends\none feels the poverty of protest, as before an earthquake. \"There is\nmore than one war,\" wrote the aged Rodin to me on the 1st of October,\n1914. \"What is happening is like a punishment which falls on the world.\"\n\n[4] A telegram from Berlin (Wolff's Agency), reproduced by the _Gazette\nde Lousanne_, August 29, 1914, has just announced that \"the old town of\nLouvain, rich in works of art, exists no more to-day.\"\n\n[5] Written after the bombardment of Rheims Cathedral.\n\n[6] When I wrote this, I had not yet seen the monstrous article by\nThomas Mann (in the _Neue Rundschau_ of November 1914), where, in a fit\nof fury and injured pride, he savagely claimed for Germany, as a title\nto glory, all the crimes of which her adversaries accuse her. He dared\nto write that the present war was a war of German Kultur \"against\nCivilization,\" proclaiming that German thought had no other ideal than\nmilitarism, and inscribes on his banner the following lines, the apology\nof force oppressing weakness:\n\n     \"_Den der Mensch verk\u00fcmmert im Frieden,_\n      _M\u00fcssige Ruh ist das Grab des Muts._\n      _Das Gesetz ist der Freund des Schwachen,_\n      _Alles will es nur eben machen._\n      _M\u00f6chte gern die Welt verflachen,_\n      _Aber der Krieg l\u00e4sst die Kraft erscheinen...._\"\n\n(_Man deteriorates in peace. Idle rest is the tomb of courage. Law is\nthe friend of the weak, it aims at levelling all; it would reduce the\nworld to a level. War brings out strength._)\n\nEven so a bull in the arena, mad with rage, rushes with lowered head on\nthe matador's sword, and impales himself.\n\n[7] As one of these 'pedants of barbarism' (so Miguel de Unamuno rightly\ndescribes them) writes, \"one has the right to destroy; if one has the\nforce to create\" (Wer stark ist zu schaffen, der darf auch\nzerst\u00f6ren).--Friedr Gundolf: _Tat und Wort im Krieg_, published in the\n_Frankfurter Zeitung_, October 11th. Cf. the article of the aged Hans\nThoma, in the _Leipziger Illustrierte Zeitung_ of October 1st.\n\n[8] _Jean-Christophe_, part V, \"La Foire sur la Place.\" In vol. III of\nthe English version.--TRANS.\n\n[9] At the very hour I wrote these lines, Charles P\u00e9guy died.\n\n[10] Alludes to a Viennese writer who had told me, a few weeks before\nthe declaration of war, that a disaster for France would be a disaster\nfor the liberal thinkers of Germany too.\n\n[11] See note, p. 193.\n\n[12] Liebknecht has since gloriously cleared his honor of the\ncompromises of his party. I here express admiration of his attitude. (R.\nR., January 1915.)\n\n[13] Recently published in the _Corriere della Sera_ and translated by\nthe _Journal de Gen\u00e8ve_, September 1914.\n\n[14] _Le Temps_, September 4, 1914.\n\n[15] Issues of September 16 and 17, 1914: _La Guerre et le Droit_.\n\n[16] Letter dated September 15, 1871, published in _R\u00e9forme\nintellectuelle et morale_.\n\n[17] Open letter of Dr. Ernst Dryander, the First Court Preacher and\nVice-President of the Higher Ecclesiastical Council, to C. E. Babut,\nPastor of Nimes, September 15, 1914 (published in _l'Essor_ for the 10th\nOctober and the _Journal de Gen\u00e8ve_, 18th October).\n\n[18] The newspapers of both countries give publicity only to prejudiced\nstories unfavorable to the enemy. One would imagine that they devote\nthemselves to collecting only the worst cases, in order to preserve the\natmosphere of hatred; and those to which they give predominance are\noften doubtful and always exceptional. No mention is made of anything\nthat would tell in a contrary direction of prisoners who are grateful\nfor their treatment, as in the letters which we have to transmit to\ntheir families--in which, for example, a German civil prisoner speaks of\na pleasant walk, or of sea bathing, he has been allowed to enjoy. I have\neven come across the case of an entomologist who is peacefully absorbed\nin his researches, and profiting by his enforced sojourn in the South of\nFrance to complete his collection of insects.\n\n[19] On this point, I would echo the appeal in the article cited above,\nfrom the _Neue Z\u00fcrcher Zeitung_.\n\n[20] Published by the _Daily Telegraph_, London, 1914.\n\n[21] The Editor of a great Paris paper having offered to publish my\nreply to those who attacked me, I sent him this article, which never\nappeared.\n\n[22] Paul Bourget.\n\n[23] The Evangelical pastor Schrenck in an article on \"War and the New\nTestament,\" quoted with approval by the Rev. Ch. Correvon in the\n_Journal religieus_ of Neuchatel, November 14th.\n\n[24] In a declaration to the editor of the Swedish paper _Dagen_.\n\n[25] The famous \"Appeal to the Civilized Nations\" had been sent out\nshortly before this by the ninety-three German intellectuals.\n\n[26] Holland.\n\n[27] \"To let a people,\" he said, \"or still more a fraction of a people,\ndecide international questions, for instance, which state shall control\nthem, is as good as making the children of a house vote for their\nfather. It is the most ridiculous fallacy that human wit has ever\ninvented.\"\n\n[28] The _Svenska Dagbladet_ sent to the principal intellectuals of\nEurope an inquiry on the subject of the results which the war would\nhave, \"for international collaboration, in the domain of the spirit.\" It\nasked \"with anxiety, to what extent it would be possible, once peace was\nconcluded, to establish relations between the scientists, writers, and\nartists of the different nations.\"\n\n[29] The literary appreciation of the work cited is here treated as of\nsecondary importance, in order that evidence may be discovered with\nregard to the thought of Germany.\n\n[30] See the article of Josef Luitpol Stern, \"Dichter,\" in _Die Weissen\nBl\u00e4tter_, March 1915.\n\n[31] Hohe Gemeinschaft.\n\n[32] Fremde sind wir auf der Erde alle.\n\n[33] _Die Uebersch\u00e4tzung der Kunst_ (December 1914).\n\n[34] _Von der Vaterlandsliebe_ (January 1915).\n\n[35] December 1914.\n\n[36] _Hymne auf den Schmerz_ (January 1915).--It is to be noted that the\n_Forum_ is read in the trenches, and that it has received many letters\nof approval from the front. (_Der Phrasenrausch und seine Bekaempfer_,\nFebruary 1915.)\n\n[37] I take the phrase from M. Lucien Maury in an article written before\nthe war: (_Journal de Gen\u00e8ve_) March 30, 1914. This is quoted recently\nby M. Adolphe Ferri\u00e8re who, in his remarkable Doctor's thesis, _La loi\ndu Progr\u00e8s_ attempts to solve the tragic problem of the part played by\nthe \u00e9lite.\n\n[38] The review _Die Tat_, published by Eug. Diederichs at Jena, prints\nlong extracts from them in its issue for May 1915.\n\n[39] With an introduction by C. E. Babut.\n\n[40] His principal philosophical work is his Doctor's thesis: _La\nr\u00e9alit\u00e9 du monde sensible_ (1891). Another thesis (in Latin) dates from\nthe same year: _Des origines du socialisme allemand_, in which he goes\nback to the Christian socialism of Luther.\n\nHis great historical work is his _Histoire sociale de la R\u00e9volution_.\nVery interesting is his discussion with Paul Lafargue on _l'Id\u00e9alisme et\nle mat\u00e9rialisme dans la conception de l'histoire_.\n\n[41] \"The need of unity is the profoundest and noblest of the human\nmind\" (_La r\u00e9alit\u00e9 du monde sensible_).\n\n[42] \"This young democracy must be given a taste for liberty. It has a\npassion for equality; it has not in the same degree an idea of liberty,\nwhich is acquired much more slowly and with greater difficulty. We must\ngive the children of the people, by means of a sufficiently lofty\nexercise of their powers of thinking, a sense of the value of man and\nconsequently of the value of liberty, without which man does not exist.\"\n(To the teachers, January 15, 1888.)\n\n[43] \"As for myself, I have never made use of violence to attack\nbeliefs, whatever they may be; nay, more, I have always abstained even\nfrom that form of violence which consists in insult. Insult expresses a\nweak and feverish revolt, rather than the liberty of reason.\" (1901.)\n\n[44] \"The true formula of patriotism is the equal right of all countries\nto liberty and justice; it is the duty of every citizen to increase in\nhis own country the forces of liberty and justice. Those are but sorry\npatriots who in order to love and serve one country, find it necessary\nto decry the others, the other great moral forces of humanity.\" (1905.)\n\n[45] Or the extracts given by Charles Rappoport in his excellent book\n_Jean Jaur\u00e8s, l'homme, le penseur, le socialiste_ (1915, Paris,\n_l'Emancipatrice_), with an introduction by Anatole France. From this\nbook are quoted the passages referred to in the notes which follow.\n_Jean Jaur\u00e8s_, a brochure by Ren\u00e9 Legand, should also be read.\n\n[46] Rappoport, _op. cit._, pp. 70-77.\n\n[47] Rappoport, p. 234.\n\n[48] In his speech at Vaise, near Lyon, July 25, 1914, six days before\nhis death, he said: \"Every people appears throughout the streets of\nEurope carrying its little torch; and now comes the conflagration.\"\n\n[49] Rappoport, p. 61.\n\n[50] Rappoport p. 369-70.\n\n[51] \"Throughout the world there are six millions of us, organized\nworkmen, for whom the name of Jaur\u00e8s was the incarnation of the noblest\nand most complete aspiration.... I remember what he was for the workmen\nof other countries. I see still the foreign delegates who awaited his\nwords before forming their final opinions; even when they were not in\nagreement with him they were glad to approach his point of view. He was\nmore than the Word: he was the Conscience.\"\n\n[52] Who has spoken more nobly than he of the eternal France, \"the true\nFrance, that is not summed up by an epoch or by a day, neither by the\nday of long ago, nor the day that has just passed, but the whole of\nFrance complete in the succession of her days, of her nights, of her\ndawns, of her shadows, of her heights and of her depths; of France, who,\nacross all these mingled shades, all these half-lights and all these\nvicissitudes, goes forward towards a brilliance which she has not yet\nattained, but which is foreshadowed in her thought!\" (1910.)\n\nSee his masterly picture of French history, and his magnificent eulogy\nof France, at the Conference of 1905, which he was prevented from\ndelivering in Berlin, and which Robert Fischer read in his place.\n\n[53] The terms Asia and Africa have not, of course, a geographical but\nan ethnological signification. Turkey is not, and never has been,\nEuropean; and it is difficult to decide up to what points certain of the\nBalkan Powers are European.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\nCorrections of typographical erros made by the etext transcriber:\n\nTolsto\u00ef=>Tolstoi\n\nAusl\u00e6nder, Auslander=>Ausl\u00e4nder\n\nDeutschland Uber Alles=>Deutschland \u00dcber Alles\n\nAm\u00e9dee=>Am\u00e9d\u00e9e\n\nRene Schickele=>Ren\u00e9 Schickele\n\nRen\u00e9 Legan=>Ren\u00e9 Legand\n\nBarr\u00e9s=>Barr\u00e8s\n\nCaesar=>C\u00e6sar\n\nCornelienne=>Corn\u00e9lienne\n\nFerriere=>Ferri\u00e8re\n\nHerv\u00e8=>Herv\u00e9\n\nKulturtrager=>Kulturtr\u00e4ger\n\nL\u00e9onhard=>Leonhard\n\nLi\u00e9ge=>Li\u00e8ge\n\nPeguy=>P\u00e9guy\n\nRegnier=>R\u00e9gnier\n\nThermopylae=>Thermopyl\u00e6\n\nZorothowa=>Zorothowo\n\nGraefin=>Gr\u00e6fin\n\nNotre-Dame la Misere=>Notre-Dame la Mis\u00e8re\n\nMoliere=>Moli\u00e8re\n\nJaur\u00e9s=>Jaur\u00e8s\n\n\u00e8lan=>\u00e9lan\n\nd\u00e8nouement=>d\u00e9nouement\n\nDr. Ernst Drylander=>Dr. Ernst Dryander\n\nIdealogues=>Ideologues\n\nNEDERLANDSCHE ANTI-OORLOGRAAD=>NEDERLANDSCHE ANTI-OORLOG RAAD\n\nSterheim=>Sternheim","title":"Above the Battle","tradition":"philosophy-ethics","translated_text":null,"word_count":41837}