Part 6

But the intelligent few cannot satisfy themselves with so little effort. Not that they are, as is often said, less readily swayed by passion. This is a grave error; the richer a life becomes the more does it offer for passion to devour, and history sufficiently shows the terrifying paroxysms to which the lives of religious leaders and revolutionaries have attained. But these toilers in the spirit love careful work, and are repelled by popular modes of thought which perpetually break through the meshes of reasoning. They have to make a more closely woven net in which instinct and idea, cost what it may, combine to form a stouter tissue. They thus achieve monstrous _chefs-d'oeuvre_. Give an intellectual any ideal and any evil passion and he will always succeed in harmonizing the twain. The love of God and the love of mankind have been invoked in order to burn, kill, and pillage. The fraternity of 1793 was sister to the Holy Guillotine. We have in our time seen Churchmen seeking and finding in the Gospels the justification of Banking and of War. Since the outbreak of the war a clergyman of Würtemberg established the fact that _neither Christ nor John the Baptist nor the apostles desired to suppress militarism_.[23] A clever intellectual is a conjuror in ideas. "_Nothing in my hands--nothing up my sleeves._" The great trick is to extract from any given idea its precise contrary--war from the Sermon on the Mount, or, like Professor Ostwald, the military dictatorship of the Kaiser from the dream of an intellectual internationalism. For such conjurors these things are but child's play.

Let us expose them, by examining the words of this Dr. Ostwald, who has appeared during the last few months as the Baptist of the Gospel of the spiked helmet.

Here is the Idol to begin with--_Kultur (made in Germany), with a capital K "rectiligne et de quatre pointes, comme un chevel de frise,"_ as Miguel de Unamuno wrote to me. All around are little gods, the children of its loins: _Kulturstaat_, _Kulturbund_, _Kulturimperium_....

_"I am now" (it is the voice of Ostwald[24]) "going to explain to you the great secret of Germany. We, or rather the Germanic race, have discovered the factor of Organization. Other peoples still live under the régime of individualism while we are under that of Organization. The stage of Organization is a more advanced stage of civilization."_

It is surely clear that, like those missionaries who, in order to carry the Christian faith to heathen peoples, secure the co-operation of a squadron and a landing party which straightway establish in the idolatrous country commercial stores protected by a ring of cannon, German intelligence cannot without selfishness keep her treasures to herself. She is obliged to share them.

"_Germany wishes to organize Europe, for Europe has hitherto not been organized. With us everything tends to elicit from each individual the maximal output in the direction most favorable for society. That for us is liberty in its highest form._"

We may well pause to marvel at this way of talking about human "culture" as though it were a question of asparagus and artichokes. Of this happiness, and these advantages, this maximal output, this market-garden culture, this liberty of artichokes subjected to a judicious forcing process, Professor Ostwald does not wish to deprive the other peoples of Europe. As they are so unenlightened as not to acquiesce with enthusiasm:

"_War will make them participate in the form of this organization in our higher civilization._"

Thereupon the chemist-philosopher, who is also in his leisure hours a politician and a strategist, sketches in bold outline the picture of the victories of Germany and a remodeled Europe--a United States of Europe under the paternal sceptre of his mailed Kaiser: England crushed, France disarmed, and Russia dismembered. His colleague Haeckel completes this joyous _exposé_ by dividing Belgium, the British Empire, and the North of France--like Perrette of the fable before her pitcher broke. Unfortunately neither Haeckel nor Ostwald tells us if their plan for the establishment of this higher civilization included the destruction of the Halle of Ypres, of the Library at Louvain, of the Cathedral at Rheims. After all these conquests, divisions, and devastations, let us not overlook this wonderful sentence of which Ostwald certainly did not realize the sinister buffoonery, worthy of a Molière: "You know that I am a pacifist."

However far the high priests of a cult may allow their emotion to carry them, their profession of faith still retains a certain diplomatic reserve which does not hamper their followers. Thus the _Kulturmenschen_. But the zeal of their Levites must frequently disturb the serenity of Moses and Aaron--Haeckel and Ostwald--by its intemperate frankness. I do not know what they think of the article of Thomas Mann which appeared in the November number of the _Neue Rundschau_: "Gedanken im Kriege." But I do know what certain French intellectuals will think of it. Germany could not offer them a more terrible weapon against herself.

In an access of delirious pride and exasperated fanaticism Mann employs his envenomed pen to justify the worst accusations that have been made against Germany. While an Ostwald endeavors to identify the cause of _Kultur_ with that of civilization, Mann proclaims: "They have nothing in common. The present war is that of _Kultur_ (i. e., of Germany) against civilization." And pushing this outrageous boast of pride to the point of madness, he defines civilization as Reason (_Vernunft, Aufklärung_), Gentleness (_Sittigung, Sänftigung_), Spirit (_Geist, Auflösung_), and Kultur as "a spiritual _organization_ of the world" which does not exclude "bloody savagery." Kultur is "the sublimation of the demoniacal" (_die Sublimierung des Dämonischen_). It is "above morality, above reason, and above science." While Ostwald and Haeckel see in militarism merely an arm or instrument of which Kultur makes use to secure victory, Thomas Mann affirms that Kultur and Militarism are brothers--their ideal is the same, their aim the same, their principle the same. Their enemy is peace, is spirit ("_Ja, der Geist ist zivil, ist bürgerlich_"). He finally dares to inscribe on his own and his country's banner the words, "Law is the friend of the weak; it would reduce the world to a level. War brings out strength."

_Das Gesetz ist der Freund des Schwachen,_ _Möchte gern die Welt verflachen_ _Aber der Krieg lässt die Kraft erscheinen...._

In this criminal glorification of violence, Thomas Mann himself has been surpassed. Ostwald preached the victory of Kultur, if necessary by Force; Mann proved that Kultur is Force. Some one was needed to cast aside the last veil of reserve and say "Force alone. All else be silent." We have read extracts from the cynical article in which Maximilian Harden, treating the desperate efforts of his Government to excuse the violation of Belgian neutrality as feeble lies, dared to write:

"_Why on earth all this fuss? Might creates our Right. Did a powerful man ever submit himself to the crazy pretensions or to the judgment of a band of weaklings?_"

What a testimony to the madness into which German intelligence has been precipitated by pride and struggle, and to the moral anarchy of this Empire, whose _organization_ is imposing only to the eyes of those who do not see farther than the façade! Who cannot see the weakness of a Government which gags its socialist press and yet tolerates such an insulting contradiction as this? Who does not see that such words defame Germany before the whole world for centuries to come? These miserable intellectuals imagine that with their display of infuriated Nietzcheism and Bismarckism they are acting heroically and impressing the world. They merely disgust it. They wish to be believed. People are only too ready to believe them. The whole of Germany will be made responsible for the delirium of a few writers. Germany will one day realize she has had no more deadly enemy than her own intellectuals.

* * * * *

I write here without prejudice, for I am certainly not proud of our French intellectuals. The Idol of Race, or of Civilization, or of Latinity, which they so greatly abuse, does not satisfy me. I do not like any idol--not even that of Humanity. But at any rate those to which my country bows down are less dangerous. They are not aggressive, and, moreover, there remains even in the most fanatical of our intellectuals a basis of native common sense, of which the Germans of whom I have just spoken seem to have lost all trace. But it must be admitted that on neither side have they brought honor to the cause of reason, which they have not been able to protect against the winds of violence and folly. There is a saying of Emerson's which is applicable to their failure:

"_Nothing is more rare in any man than an act of his own._"

Their acts and their writings have come to them from others, from outside, from public opinion, blind and menacing. I do not wish to condemn those who have been obliged to remain silent either because they are in the armies, or because the censorship which rules in countries involved in war has imposed silence upon them. But the unheard-of weakness with which the leaders of thought have everywhere abdicated to the collective madness has certainly proved their lack of _character_.

Certain somewhat paradoxical passages in my own writings have caused me at times to be styled an anti-intellectual; an absurd charge to bring against one who has given his life to the worship of thought. But it is true that Intellectualism has often appeared to me as a mere caricature of Thought--Thought mutilated, deformed, and petrified, powerless, not only to dominate the drama of life, but even to understand it. And the events of to-day have proved me more in the right than I wished to be. The intellectual lives too much in the realm of shadows, of ideas. Ideas have no existence in themselves, but only through the hopes or experiences which can fill them. They are either summaries, or hypotheses; frames for what has been or will be; convenient or necessary formulæ. One cannot live and act without them, but the evil is that people make them into oppressive realities. No one contributes more to this than the intellectual, whose trade it is to handle them, who, biased by his profession, is always tempted to subordinate reality to them. Let there supervene a collective passion which completes his blindness, and it will be cast in the form of the idea which can best serve its purpose: it transfers its life-blood to that idea, and the idea magnifies and glorifies it in turn. Nothing is more long-lived in a man than a phantom which his own mind has created, a phantom in which are combined the madness of his heart and the madness of his head. Hence the intellectuals in the present crisis have not been overcome by the warlike contagion less than others, but they have themselves contributed to spreading it. I would add (for it is their punishment) that they are victims of the contagion for a longer period: for whilst simple folk constantly submit to the test of every-day action and of experience, and modify their ideas without conscious regret, the intellectual finds himself bound in the net of his own creation and every word that he writes draws the bonds tighter. Hence while we see that in the soldiers of all armies the fire of hate is rapidly dying down and that they already fraternize from trench to trench, the writers redouble their furious arguments. We can easily prophesy that when the remembrance of this senseless war has passed away among the people its bitterness will still be smouldering in the hearts of the intellectuals....

Who shall break the idols? Who shall open the eyes of their fanatical followers? Who shall make them understand that no god of their minds, religious or secular, has the right to force himself on other human beings--even he who seems the most worthy--or to despise them? Admitting that your _Kultur_ on German soil produces the sturdiest and most abundant human crop, who has entrusted to you the mission of cultivating other lands? Cultivate your own garden. We will cultivate ours. There is a sacred flower for which I would give all the products of your artificial culture. It is the wild violet of Liberty. You do not care about it. You tread it under foot. But it will not die. It will live longer than your masterpieces of barrack and hot-house. It is not afraid of the wind. It has braved other tempests than that of today. It grows under brambles and under dead leaves. Intellectuals of Germany, intellectuals of France, labor and sow on the fields of your own minds: respect those of others. Before _organizing_ the world you have enough to do to _organize_ your own private world. Try for a moment to forget your ideas and behold yourselves. And above all, look at us. Champions of _Kultur_ and of Civilization, of the Germanic races and of Latinity, enemies, friends, let us look one another in the eyes. My brother, do you not see there a heart similar to your own, with the same hopes, the same egoism, and the same heroism and power of dream which forever refashions its gossamer web? _Vois-tu pas que tu es moi_? said the old Hugo to one of his enemies....

The true man of culture is not he who makes of himself and his ideal the center of the universe, but who looking around him sees, as in the sky the stream of the Milky Way, thousands of little flames which flow with his own; and who seeks neither to absorb them nor to impose upon them his own course, but to give himself the religious persuasion of their value and of the common source of the fire by which all alike are fed. Intelligence of the mind is nothing without that of the heart. It is nothing also without good sense and humor--good sense which shows to every people and to every being their place in the universe--and humor which is the critic of misguided reason, the soldier who, following the chariot to the Capitol, reminds Cæsar in his hour of triumph that he is bald.

_Journal de Genève_, December 4, 1914.

IX. FOR EUROPE: MANIFESTO OF THE WRITERS AND THINKERS OF CATALONIA

National passions are triumphant. For five months they have rent our Europe. They think they will soon have compassed its destruction and effaced its image in the hearts of the last of these who remain faithful to it. But they are mistaken. They have renewed the faith that we had in it. They have made us recognize its value and our love. And from one country to another we have discovered our unknown brothers, sons of the same mother, who in the hour when she is denied, consecrate themselves to her defence.

Today, it is from Spain that the voice reaches us, from the thinkers of Catalonia. Let us pass on their appeal which comes to us from the shores of the Mediterranean, like the sound of a Christmas bell. Another day the bells of Northern Europe will be heard in their turn. And soon all will ring together in unison. The test is good. Let us be thankful. Those who desired to separate us have joined our hands.

R. R.

_December 31, 1914._

MANIFESTO OF THE _FRIENDS OF THE MORAL UNITY OF EUROPE_

A number of literary and scientific men at Barcelona, as far removed from amorphous internationalism on the one hand as from mere parochialism on the other, have banded themselves together _to affirm their unchangeable belief in the moral unity of Europe_, and to further this belief as far as the suffocating conditions resulting from the present tragic circumstances permit.

We set out from the principle that the terrible war which today is rending the heart of this Europe of ours is, by implication, a _Civil War_.

A civil war does not exactly mean an unjust war; still, it can only be justified by a conflict between great ideals, and if we desire the triumph of one or the other of these ideals, it must be for the sake of the entire European Commonwealth and its general well-being. None of the belligerents, therefore, can be allowed to aim at the complete destruction of its opponents; and it is even less legitimate to start out from the criminal hypothesis that one or another of the parties is _de facto_ already excluded from this superior commonwealth.

Yet we have seen with pain assertions such as these approved and deliriously spread abroad; and not always amongst common people, or by the voices of those who speak not with authority. For three months it seemed as if our ideal Europe were ship-wrecked, but a reaction is making its appearance already. A thousand indications assure us that, in the world of intellect at any rate, the winds are quieting down, and that in the best minds the eternal values will soon spring up once more.

It is our purpose to assist in this reaction, to contribute to making it known, and, as far as we are able, to ensure its triumph. We are not alone. We have with us in every quarter of the world the ardent aspirations of far-sighted minds, and the unvoiced wishes of thousands of men of good will, who, beyond their sympathies and personal preferences, are determined to remain faithful to the cause of this moral unity.

And above all we have, in the far distant future, the appreciation of the men who tomorrow will applaud this modest work to which we are devoting ourselves today.

We will begin by giving the greatest possible publicity to those actions, declarations, and manifestations--whether they emanate from belligerent or neutral nations--in which the effort of reviving the feeling of a higher unity and a generous altruism may become apparent. Later we shall be able to extend our activities and place them at the service of new enterprises. We demand nothing more of our friends, of our press, and of our fellow citizens than a little attention for these quickenings of reality, a little respect for the interests of a higher humanity, and a little love for the great traditions and the rich possibilities of a _unified Europe_.

BARCELONA, _November 27, 1914_.

EUGENIO D'ORS, Member of the Institute; MANUEL DE MONTOLIU, Author; AURELIO RAS, Director of the Review _Estudio_; AUGUSTIN MURUA, University Professor; TELESFORO DE ARANZADI, University Professor; MIGUEL S. OLIVER; JUAN PALAU, publicist; PABLO VILA, Director of _Mont d'Or_ College; ENRIQUE JARDI, Barrister; E. MESSEGUER, publicist; CARMEN KARR, Director of the _Residencia de Estudiantes El Hogar_; ESTEBAN TERRADES, Member of the Institute; JOSE ZULUETA, Member of Parliament; R. JORI, Author; EUDALDO DURAN REYNALS, Librarian of the _Biblioteca de Cataluna_; RAFAEL CAMPALANS, Engineer; J. M. LOPEZ-PICO, Author; R. RUCABADO, Author; E. CUELLO CALOU, University Professor; MANUEL REVENLOS, Professor of the _Escuela de Funcionarios_; J. FARRAN MAYORAL, Author; JAIME MASSO TORRENTS, Member of the Institute; JORGE RUBIO BALAGUER, Director of the _Biblioteca de Cataluna_.

_Translated from the Spanish by R. R._

_Journal de Genève_, January 9, 1915.

X. FOR EUROPE: AN APPEAL FROM HOLLAND TO THE INTELLECTUALS OF ALL NATIONS

In the preceding chapter, in which I put before my readers the fine manifesto of the Catalonian intellectuals "For the Moral Unity of Europe," I stated that after this appeal from the Mediterranean South I would make known those of the North. Amongst the latter here is the voice of Holland:--

The _Nederlandsche Anti-Oorlog Road_ (Dutch Anti-War Council) is perhaps the most important attempt that these last months has seen to unify pacifist thought. Whilst recognizing the value of what has been done for some years past in favor of peace, the N. A. O. R. is convinced that "all this work could have been much more effective, and could even have prevented the present catastrophe, if it had been better taken in hand." There has been lack of co-operation, wastage of energy, lack of penetration to the mass of the people. The problem is to discover if this internal defect cannot be remedied. "Will the world-wide tragedy of rivalry continue even inside the pacifist movement, or will this war teach those who are fighting against it the necessity of an energetic organization and preparation?"

To this task the N.A.O.R. is devoting itself. Founded on October 8, 1914, it had succeeded by January 15th in securing the adhesion of 350 Dutch societies (official, political, of all parties, religious, intellectual, labor), and its manifestoes brought together the signatures of more than a hundred of the most illustrious names of the Netherlands--statesmen, prelates, officers, writers, professors, artists, business men, etc. It therefore represents a considerable moral force.

Let it be said at once that the N.A.O.R. does not look for an immediate end of the war by a peace at any price. On the one hand it declares itself "it has formed no presumptuous idea of its strength; it has no naïve confidence in vague peace formulæ, nor even in well-defined mutual obligations. The universal war of today has, alas! taught it much in this respect also." And, moreover, it is quite aware that a peace at any price, under present conditions, would only be a consecration of injustice. The great public meetings which it has organized on December 15th in the chief towns of the Netherlands have unanimously declared that such a peace seemed neither possible nor even desirable. I will add that certain of the articles of the N.A.O.R. suggest, with all the reserve necessitated by its attitude of neutrality and its profound desire for impartiality, the direction of its suppressed sympathies. Especially the following:--

"To repair the harm done by this war to the prestige of law in international relations. To bow before the law, whether customary or codified in treaties is a duty, even where sanction is wanting. Reform will be in vain: if there is not respect for law, and nations refuse to keep their word, a durable peace is out of the question."

The object of the N.A.O.R. is especially to study the conditions in which we can realize a just, humane, and durable peace, which will secure for Europe a long future of fruitful tranquility and of common work, and to interest the public opinion of all nations in securing such a peace. I cannot analyze here, owing to lack of space, the various public manifestoes, the _Appeal to the People of Holland_ (October, 1914), or the _Appeal for Co-operation and the Preparation of Peace_, a kind of attempt to mobilize the pacifist armies (November). The latter of these contains ideas which agree in many cases with those of the _Union of Democratic Control_ (the abolition of secret diplomacy, and a larger control of foreign affairs by Parliaments; the prohibition of special armament industries; the establishment of the elementary principle of international law, that no country shall be annexed without the consent, freely expressed, of the population). I will content myself here with publishing the manifesto addressed to the thinkers, writers, artists, and scientists of all nations. In this manifesto we shall find support for the tasks which we ourselves have undertaken in working to keep the thought of Europe sheltered from the ravages of the war, and in continually recalling it to the recognition of its highest duty, which is, even in the worst storms of passion, to safeguard the spiritual unity bf civilized humanity.

R. R.

_February 7, 1915._

NEDERLANDSCHE ANTI-OORLOG RAAD

Immediately after the European war had broken out, several groups of intellectuals belonging to the warring nations have advocated the justice of their country's cause in manifestoes and pamphlets, which they have scattered in great numbers throughout the neutral states.[25] And this still goes on; side by side with the war of the sword a no less vehement war is carried on with the pen.