XVIWHEN THE WAR IS OVER

Before closing this book, I wish to weigh for the last time in my conscience the words of hatred and malediction which the war has made me utter in spite of myself. We have to do with the strangest of enemies. He has knowingly and deliberately, while in the full possession of his faculties and without necessity or excuse, revived all the crimes which we supposed to be for ever buried in the barbarous past. He has trampled under foot all the precepts which man had so painfully won from the cruel darkness of his beginnings; he has violated all the laws of justice, humanity, loyalty and honour, from the highest, which are almost godlike, to the simplest, the most elementary, which still belong to the lower worlds. There is no longer any doubt on this point: it has been proved over and over again until we have attained a final certitude.

On the other hand, it is no less certain that he has displayed virtues which it would be unworthy of us to deny; for we honour ourselves in recognizing the valour of those whom we are fighting.He has gone to his death in deep, compact, disciplined masses, with a blind, hopeless, obstinate heroism, of which no such lurid example had ever yet been known and which has many times compelled our admiration and our pity. He has known how to sacrifice himself, with unprecedented and perhaps unequalled abnegation, to an idea which we know to be false, inhuman and even somewhat mean, but which he believes to be just and lofty; and a sacrifice of this kind, whatever its object, is always the proof of a force which survives those who devote themselves to making it and must command respect.

I know very well that this heroism is not like the heroism which we love. For us, heroism must before all be voluntary, free from any constraint, active, ardent, eager and spontaneous; whereas with our enemies it has mingled with it a great deal of servility, passiveness, sadness, gloomy, ignorant, massive submission and rather base fears. It is nevertheless the fact that, in the moment of supreme peril, little remains of all these distinctions, and that no force in the world can drive to its death a people which does not bear within itself the strength to confront it. Our soldiers make no mistake upon this point. Question the men returning from the trenches: they detest the enemy, they abhor the aggressor, the unjust and arrogant aggressor, uncouth, too often cruel and treacherous; but they do not hate the man: they do him justice; they pity him; and, after the battle, in the defenceless wounded soldier or disarmed prisoner they recognize, with astonishment,a brother in misfortune who, like themselves, is submitting to duties and laws which, like themselves, he too believes lofty and necessary. Under the insufferable enemy they see an unhappy man who likewise is bearing the burden of life. They forget the things that divide them to recall only those which unite them in a common destiny; and they teach us a great lesson. Better than ourselves, who are far from danger, at the contact of profound and fearful verities and realities they are already beginning to discern something that we cannot yet perceive; and their obscure instinct is probably anticipating the judgment of history and our own judgment, when we see more clearly. Let us learn from them to be just and to distinguish that which we are bound to despise and loathe from that which we may pity, love and respect. Setting aside the unpardonable aggression and the inexpiable violation of treaties, this war, despite its insanity, has come near to being a bloody but magnificent proof of greatness, heroism and the spirit of sacrifice. Humanity was ready to rise above itself, to surpass all that it had hitherto accomplished. It has surpassed it. Never before had nations been seen capable, for months on end, perhaps for years, of renouncing their repose, their security, their wealth, their comfort, all that they possessed and loved, down to their very life, in order to do what they believed to be their duty. Never before had nations been seen that were able as a whole to understand and admit that the happiness of each of those who live in this time of trial is of no consequence comparedwith the honour of those who live no more or the happiness of those who are not yet alive. We stand on heights that had not been attained before. And, if, on the enemies’ side, this unexampled renunciation had not been poisoned at its source; if the war which they are waging against us had been as fine, as loyal, as generous, as chivalrous as that which we are waging against them, we may well believe that it would have been the last and that it would have ended, not in a battle, but, like the awakening from an evil dream, in a noble and fraternal amazement. They have made that impossible; and this, we may be sure, is the disappointment which the future will find it most difficult to forgive them.

What are we to do now? Must we hate the enemy to the end of time? The burden of hatred? is the heaviest that man can bear upon this earth; and we should faint under the weight of it. On the other hand, we do not wish once more to be the dupes and victims of confidence and love. Here again our soldiers, in their simplicity, which is so clear-seeing and so close to the truth, anticipate the future and teach us what to admit and what to avoid. We have seen that they do not hate the man; but they do not trust him at all. They discover the human being in him only when he is unarmed. They know, from bitter experience, that, so long as he possesses weapons, he cannot resist the frenzy of destruction, treacheryand slaughter; and that he does not become kindly until he is rendered powerless.

Is he thus by nature, or has he been perverted by those who lead him? Have the rulers dragged the whole nation after them, or has the whole nation driven its rulers on? Did the rulers make the nation like unto themselves, or did the nation select and support them because they resembled itself? Did the evil come from above or below, or was it everywhere? Here we have the great obscure point of this terrible adventure. It is not easy to throw light upon it and still less easy to find excuses for it. If our enemies prove that they were deceived and corrupted by their masters, they prove, at the same time, that they are less intelligent, less firmly attached to justice, honour and humanity, less civilized, in a word, than those whom they claimed the right to enslave in the name of a superiority which they themselves have proved not to exist; and, unless they can establish that their errors, perfidies and cruelties, which can no longer be denied, should be imputed only to those masters, then they themselves must bear the pitiless weight. I do not know how they will escape from this predicament, nor what the future will decide, that future which is wiser than the past, even as, in the words of an old Slav proverb, the dawn is wiser than the eve. In the meanwhile, let us copy the prudence of our soldiers, who know what to believe far better than we do.

FOOTNOTES[1]Marie Lenéru,Les Affranchis, Act III., sc. iv.[2]Those who take up the study of these supernormal manifestations usually ask themselves:“Why mediums? Why make use of these often questionable and always inadequate intermediaries?”The reason is that, hitherto, no way has been discovered of doing without them. If we admit the spiritualistic theory, the discarnate spirits which surround us on every side and which are separated from us by the impenetrable and mysterious wall of death seek, in order to communicate with us, the line of least resistance between the two worlds and find it in the medium, without our knowing why, even as we do not know why an electric current passes along copper wire and is stopped by glass or porcelain. If, on the other hand, we admit the telepathic hypothesis, which is the more probable, we observe that the thoughts, intentions or suggestions transmitted are, in the majority of cases, not conveyed from one subconscious intelligence to another. There is need of an organism that is, at the same time, a receiver and a transmitter; and this organism is found in the medium. Why? Once more, we know absolutely nothing about it, even as we do not know why one body or combination of bodies is sensitive to concentric waves in wireless telegraphy, while another is not affected by it. We are here groping, as indeed we grope almost everywhere, in the obscure domain of undisputed but inexplicable facts. Those who care to possess more precise notions on the theory of mediumism will do well to read the admirable address delivered by Sir William Crookes, as president of the S.P.R., on the 29th of January 1897.[3]The questions of fraud and imposture are naturally the first that suggest themselves when we begin to study these phenomena. But the slightest acquaintance with the life, habits and proceedings of the three or four leading mediums is enough to remove even the faintest shadow of suspicion. Of all the explanations conceivable, that one which attributes everything to imposture and trickery is unquestionably the most extraordinary and the least probable. Moreover, by reading Richard Hodgson’s report entitled,Observations of certain Phenomena of Trance(Proceedings, Vols. VIII. and XIII.) and also J. H. Hyslop’s report (Proceedings, Vol. XVI.), we can observe the precautions taken, even to the extent of employing special detectives, to make certain that Mrs. Piper, for instance, was unable, normally and humanly speaking, to have any knowledge of the facts which she revealed. I repeat, from the moment that one enters upon this study, all suspicions are dispelled without leaving a trace behind them; and we are soon convinced that the key to the riddle must not be sought in imposture. All the manifestations of the dumb, mysterious and oppressed personality that lies concealed in every one of us have to undergo the same ordeal in their turn; and those which relate to the divining-rod, to name no others, are at this moment passing through the same crisis of incredulity. Less than fifty years ago, the most of the hypnotic phenomena which are now scientifically classified were likewise looked upon as fraudulent. It seems that man is loth to admit that there lie within him many more things than he imagined.[4]In this and other “communications,” I have quoted the actual English words employed, whenever I have been able to discover them.—Translator.[5]Proceedings, Vol. XXIII., p. 33.[6]Ibid.p. 120.[7]For a discussion of these cases, which would take us too far from our subject, see Mr. J. G. Piddington’s paper,Phenomena in Mrs. Thompson’s Trance(Proceedings, Vol. XVIII., pp. 180et seq.); also Professor A. C. Pigou’s article in Vol. XXIII. (Proceedings, pp. 286et seq.).[8]Proceedings, Vol. XIII., pp. 349-350 and 375.[9]Proceedings, Vols. V. and XI.[10]Maxwell,Metapsychical Phenomena, p. 202.[11]Xenoglossy is well known not to be unusual in automatic writing; sometimes even the “automatist” speaks or writes languages of which he is completely ignorant. The Latin and Greek passages are translated as follows:“This is what I have wanted, at last. Justice and joy speak a word to the wise. A. W. V. and perhaps some one else. Chalk sticking to the feet has got over the difficulty. You help greatly by always persevering. Now I can write a name—thus, here it is!”[12]Proceedings, Vol. XI., p. 493.[13]Proceedings, Vol. XI., p. 505.[14]Proceedings, Vol. XI., p. 545.[15]A. J. C. Kerner,Die Seherin von Prevorst.[16]Light, 1907, p. 219. The crime was committed in Paris and made a great stir at the time.[17]Lady Burton,The Life of Captain Sir Richd. F. Burton. K.C.M.G., Vol. I., p. 253.[18]Journal of the Society for Psychical Research, Vol. IX., p. 15.[19]Proceedings, Vol. XX., p. 331.[20]Proceedings, Vol. XIV., p. 266.[21]Proceedings, Vol. XI., p. 422.[22]Flournoy,Esprits et médiums, p. 316.[23]Proceedings, Vol. XI., p. 424.[24]Journal, Vol. VIII., p. 45.[25]Journal, Vol. I., p. 283.[26]Memoirs of the Life and Labours of Stephen Grellet, Vol. I., p. 434.[27]This and the later passage from Pericles’ funeral oration I have quoted from the late Richard Crawley’s admirable translation of Thucydides’Peloponnesian Warnow published in theTemple Classics.—A. T. de M.[28]Kokoro: Hints and Echoes of Japanese Life, chapter xiv.: “Some Thoughts about Ancestor-Worship.”[29]August, September and October 1915.

FOOTNOTES

[1]Marie Lenéru,Les Affranchis, Act III., sc. iv.

[2]Those who take up the study of these supernormal manifestations usually ask themselves:“Why mediums? Why make use of these often questionable and always inadequate intermediaries?”The reason is that, hitherto, no way has been discovered of doing without them. If we admit the spiritualistic theory, the discarnate spirits which surround us on every side and which are separated from us by the impenetrable and mysterious wall of death seek, in order to communicate with us, the line of least resistance between the two worlds and find it in the medium, without our knowing why, even as we do not know why an electric current passes along copper wire and is stopped by glass or porcelain. If, on the other hand, we admit the telepathic hypothesis, which is the more probable, we observe that the thoughts, intentions or suggestions transmitted are, in the majority of cases, not conveyed from one subconscious intelligence to another. There is need of an organism that is, at the same time, a receiver and a transmitter; and this organism is found in the medium. Why? Once more, we know absolutely nothing about it, even as we do not know why one body or combination of bodies is sensitive to concentric waves in wireless telegraphy, while another is not affected by it. We are here groping, as indeed we grope almost everywhere, in the obscure domain of undisputed but inexplicable facts. Those who care to possess more precise notions on the theory of mediumism will do well to read the admirable address delivered by Sir William Crookes, as president of the S.P.R., on the 29th of January 1897.

[2]Those who take up the study of these supernormal manifestations usually ask themselves:

“Why mediums? Why make use of these often questionable and always inadequate intermediaries?”

The reason is that, hitherto, no way has been discovered of doing without them. If we admit the spiritualistic theory, the discarnate spirits which surround us on every side and which are separated from us by the impenetrable and mysterious wall of death seek, in order to communicate with us, the line of least resistance between the two worlds and find it in the medium, without our knowing why, even as we do not know why an electric current passes along copper wire and is stopped by glass or porcelain. If, on the other hand, we admit the telepathic hypothesis, which is the more probable, we observe that the thoughts, intentions or suggestions transmitted are, in the majority of cases, not conveyed from one subconscious intelligence to another. There is need of an organism that is, at the same time, a receiver and a transmitter; and this organism is found in the medium. Why? Once more, we know absolutely nothing about it, even as we do not know why one body or combination of bodies is sensitive to concentric waves in wireless telegraphy, while another is not affected by it. We are here groping, as indeed we grope almost everywhere, in the obscure domain of undisputed but inexplicable facts. Those who care to possess more precise notions on the theory of mediumism will do well to read the admirable address delivered by Sir William Crookes, as president of the S.P.R., on the 29th of January 1897.

[3]The questions of fraud and imposture are naturally the first that suggest themselves when we begin to study these phenomena. But the slightest acquaintance with the life, habits and proceedings of the three or four leading mediums is enough to remove even the faintest shadow of suspicion. Of all the explanations conceivable, that one which attributes everything to imposture and trickery is unquestionably the most extraordinary and the least probable. Moreover, by reading Richard Hodgson’s report entitled,Observations of certain Phenomena of Trance(Proceedings, Vols. VIII. and XIII.) and also J. H. Hyslop’s report (Proceedings, Vol. XVI.), we can observe the precautions taken, even to the extent of employing special detectives, to make certain that Mrs. Piper, for instance, was unable, normally and humanly speaking, to have any knowledge of the facts which she revealed. I repeat, from the moment that one enters upon this study, all suspicions are dispelled without leaving a trace behind them; and we are soon convinced that the key to the riddle must not be sought in imposture. All the manifestations of the dumb, mysterious and oppressed personality that lies concealed in every one of us have to undergo the same ordeal in their turn; and those which relate to the divining-rod, to name no others, are at this moment passing through the same crisis of incredulity. Less than fifty years ago, the most of the hypnotic phenomena which are now scientifically classified were likewise looked upon as fraudulent. It seems that man is loth to admit that there lie within him many more things than he imagined.

[4]In this and other “communications,” I have quoted the actual English words employed, whenever I have been able to discover them.—Translator.

[5]Proceedings, Vol. XXIII., p. 33.

[6]Ibid.p. 120.

[7]For a discussion of these cases, which would take us too far from our subject, see Mr. J. G. Piddington’s paper,Phenomena in Mrs. Thompson’s Trance(Proceedings, Vol. XVIII., pp. 180et seq.); also Professor A. C. Pigou’s article in Vol. XXIII. (Proceedings, pp. 286et seq.).

[8]Proceedings, Vol. XIII., pp. 349-350 and 375.

[9]Proceedings, Vols. V. and XI.

[10]Maxwell,Metapsychical Phenomena, p. 202.

[11]Xenoglossy is well known not to be unusual in automatic writing; sometimes even the “automatist” speaks or writes languages of which he is completely ignorant. The Latin and Greek passages are translated as follows:“This is what I have wanted, at last. Justice and joy speak a word to the wise. A. W. V. and perhaps some one else. Chalk sticking to the feet has got over the difficulty. You help greatly by always persevering. Now I can write a name—thus, here it is!”

“This is what I have wanted, at last. Justice and joy speak a word to the wise. A. W. V. and perhaps some one else. Chalk sticking to the feet has got over the difficulty. You help greatly by always persevering. Now I can write a name—thus, here it is!”

[12]Proceedings, Vol. XI., p. 493.

[13]Proceedings, Vol. XI., p. 505.

[14]Proceedings, Vol. XI., p. 545.

[15]A. J. C. Kerner,Die Seherin von Prevorst.

[16]Light, 1907, p. 219. The crime was committed in Paris and made a great stir at the time.

[17]Lady Burton,The Life of Captain Sir Richd. F. Burton. K.C.M.G., Vol. I., p. 253.

[18]Journal of the Society for Psychical Research, Vol. IX., p. 15.

[19]Proceedings, Vol. XX., p. 331.

[20]Proceedings, Vol. XIV., p. 266.

[21]Proceedings, Vol. XI., p. 422.

[22]Flournoy,Esprits et médiums, p. 316.

[23]Proceedings, Vol. XI., p. 424.

[24]Journal, Vol. VIII., p. 45.

[25]Journal, Vol. I., p. 283.

[26]Memoirs of the Life and Labours of Stephen Grellet, Vol. I., p. 434.

[27]This and the later passage from Pericles’ funeral oration I have quoted from the late Richard Crawley’s admirable translation of Thucydides’Peloponnesian Warnow published in theTemple Classics.—A. T. de M.

[28]Kokoro: Hints and Echoes of Japanese Life, chapter xiv.: “Some Thoughts about Ancestor-Worship.”

[29]August, September and October 1915.

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SEVEN CHARMING WORKSBYMAURICE MAETERLINCKTRANSLATED BYALEXANDER TEIXEIRA DE MATTOS

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