Part 27

Major Leonard Darwin, in his presidential address on "Eugenics During and After the War" to the Eugenics Education Society at the Grafton Galleries yesterday, said that our military system seemed to be devised with the object of insuring that all who were defective should be exempt from risks, whilst the strong, courageous, and patriotic should be endangered. Men with noble qualities were being destroyed, whilst the unfit remained at home to become fathers of families, and this must deteriorate the natural qualities of the coming generations. The chances of stopping war were small, and we must consider how to minimize its evils. If conscription were adopted future wars would produce less injury to the race, because the casualty lists would more nearly represent a chance selection of the population; though whether a conscript army would ever fight as well as our men were doing in France was very doubtful. The injurious effects of the war on all useful sections of the community should be mitigated. Military training was eugenic if the men were kept with the colours only for short periods. Officers must, of course, be engaged for long periods, and amongst them the birth rate was very low. An increase of pay would be beneficial in this respect, but only if given in the form of an additional allowance for each living child. In the hope of increasing the birth rate attempts were likely to be made to exalt the "unmarried wife," a detestable term against which all true wives should protest. If a change in moral standards was demanded in the hope that an increase in the habit of forming irregular unions would result in an increase in the population, that plea entirely failed because the desired effect would not thus be produced. A special effort ought now to be made on eugenic as well as on other grounds to maintain the high standards of home life which had ever existed in our race, and which had been in large measure the basis of our social and racial progress in the past. If we did not now take some steps to insure our own racial progress being at least as rapid as that of our neighbours, and if our nation should in consequence cease in future to play a great part in the noble and eternal struggle for human advancement, then the fault would be ours.

The English Word, Thought, and Life

By Russian Men of Letters

A group of sixty-seven Russian writers and publicists, comprising the best men of letters of the nation, with the exception of Vladimir Korolenko, who is at present in France, have signed a reply to the tribute to the writers of Russia by English men of letters, a translation of which was printed in CURRENT HISTORY for February, 1915. The text of the reply, given below, is taken from the Moscow daily newspaper, Outro Rossii; its translation into English by Leo Pasvolsky appeared in the New York Evening Post of June 20th.

We have known you for a long time. We have known you since we Russians came to a communion with Western Europe and began to draw from the great spiritual treasury created by our brethren of Western Europe.

From generation to generation we have watched intently the life of England, and have stored away in our minds and our hearts everything brilliant, peculiar, and individual, that has impressed itself upon the English word, the English thought, and the English life.

We have always wondered at the breadth and the manifoldness of the English soul, in whose literature one finds, side by side, Milton and Swift, Scott and Shelley, Shakespeare and Byron. We have always been amazed by the incessant and constantly growing power of civic life in England; we have always known that the English people was the first among the peoples of the world to enter upon a struggle for civic rights, and that nowhere does the word _freedom_ ring so proud and so triumphant as it does in England.

With wonder and veneration, have we watched the English people, that combines the greatest idealism with the most marvellous creative genius, that constantly transforms words into deeds, aspirations into actions, thoughts and feelings into institutions, go onward, from step to step, reaching out into the heavens, yet never relinquishing the earth, higher and higher along its triumphant road, still onward in its work of creating the life of England.

Kingdoms and peoples, cultures and institutions, pass away like dreams. But thoughts and words remain, whether they be of white men, or black, or yellow, whether they be of Jews or of Hellenes, whether they be inscribed on slabs of stone, or on boards of clay, or on strips of papyrus. Words and thoughts live to the present day; they still move us and uplift us, even though we have already forgotten the names of those who spoke them. And we know that only the winged words live on, the words that are intelligible to the whole of mankind, that appeal to the whole of humanity, to the common human mind, the common heart.

We know the vast power of the English word. We know what a marvellous contribution the English writers have made to the life not of England alone, but to that of the whole world, the whole humanity. It is with a feeling of long-standing affection and veneration that we turn to the ancient book, called "England," whose pages never grow yellow, whose letters are never effaced, whose thoughts never become dim, whose new chapters bear witness to the fact that the book is still being written, that new pages are still being added, and that these new pages are permeated with that same bright and powerful spirit of humanity that illumines and enlivens the pages of the past.

We feel proud because you have recognized the great individual worth of the Russian literature, and we are moved by your ardent expressions of sympathy and friendship. You scarcely know what Lord Byron was to us at the dawn of our literature, how our greatest poets, Poushkin and Lermontov, were swayed by him. You scarcely know to what an extent the Shakespearean Hamlet, the Prince of Denmark, has become a part of our literature, how near to us is Hamlet's tragedy.

We, too, pronounce the names of Copperfield and Snodgrass with a little difficulty, but the name of Dickens is as familiar to us and as near to our hearts as the names of some of our own writers.

We trust, and we even permit ourselves to hope, that our friendship will not end on the fields of battle, but that our mutual understanding will continue to grow, as it lives on together with those sincere and heartfelt words, with which you have addressed us. We trust that it will be transformed into a spiritual unity between us, a unity based on the universal achievements of the spirit of humanity.

We trust even further. We trust that evil will finally become extinguished in the hearts of men, that mutual ill-feeling will be bitter and poignant no longer, and that, when ears of corn will be again fluttering upon the fields, mutilated by trenches and ramparts, and drenched in human blood, when wild flowers will begin to grow over the countless unknown graves, time will come, when the nations that are separated by such a tremendous gulf today, will come together again upon the one great road of humanity and will turn back once more to the great, universal words, that are common to all men.

We trust, and we hope.

Greetings to you.

(Signed)

L. ANDREEV, K. ARSENIEV, I. BUNIN, U. BUNIN, I. BELOUSOV, M. GORKY, V. VERESAEV, A. GRUSINSKY, N. DAVYDOV, S. ELPATIEVSKY, I. IGNATOV, S. MELGUNOV, A. SERAFIMOVICH, N. TELESHOV, I. SHMELEV, N. MOROZOV, COUNT A.N. TOLSTOY, N. RUSANOV, F. KRIUKOV, A. GORNFELD, A. PIESHECHONOV, N. KAREYEV, F. BATUSHKOV, L. PANTELEYEV, N. KOTLIAREVSKY, V. MIAKOTIN, V. VODOVOSOV, P. SAKULIN, OLNEM-TSEKHOVSKAYA, A. KONI, W. KRANIKHFELD, B. LAZAREVSKY, P. POTAPENKO, TH. SOLOGUB, T. SCHEPKINA-KUPERNIK, W. BOGUCHARSKY, K. BARANTSEVICH, S. VENGEROV, P. MILIUKOV, A. PRUGAVIN, M. KOVALEVSKY, A. POSNIKOV, E. LETKOVA-SULTANOVA, D. OVSIANNIKO-KULIKOVSKY, A. REMEZOV, D. MEREZHKOVSKY, Z. HIPPICS, F. ZELINSKY, N. TCHAIKOVSKY, A. BLOK, E. TCHIRIKOV, A. PETRISCHEV, I. BIELOKONSKY, PRINCE A. SUMBATOV, W. FRITCHE, A. VESELOVSKY, W. NEMEROVICH-DANCHENKO, PRINCE E. TROUBETSKOY, I. SHPAZHINSKY, TH. KOKOSHKIN, COUNT E.L. TOLSTOY, N. TEMKOCSKY, M. ARTISIBASHEV, U. BALTRUSHAITIS, U. AICHENWALD, PRINCE D. SHAKHOVSKY, W. BRUSOV.

Evviva L'Italia

By William Archer

Mr. Archer's article praising the Italian decision and purpose appeared originally in The London Daily News.

One of the most beautiful and memorable of human experiences is to start, one fine morning, from some point in German Switzerland or Tyrol and, in two or three days--or it may be in one swinging stretch--to tramp over an Alpine pass and down into the Promised Land below. It is of no use to rush it in a motor; you might as well hop over by aeroplane. In order to savor the experience to the full, you must take staff and scrip, like the Ritter Tannhäuser, and go the pilgrim's way. It is a joy even to pass from the guttural and explosive place names of Teutonia to the liquid music of the southern vocables--from Brieg to Domo d'Ossola, from Göschenen to Bellinzona, from St. Moritz to Chiavenna, from Botzen and Brixen to Ala and Verona. It is a still greater joy to exchange the harsh, staring colors of the north for the soft luminosity of the south, as you zigzag down from the bare snows to the pines, from the pines to the chestnuts, from the chestnuts to the trellised vineyards. And just about where the vineyards begin, you come upon two wayside posts, one of them inscribed "Schweiz" or "Oesterreich," the other bearing the magic word "Italia." If your heart does not leap at the sight of it you may as well about-turn and get you home again; for you have no sense of history, no love of art, no hunger for divine, inexhaustible beauty. For all these things are implicit in the one word, "Italy."

Alas! the charm of this excursion has from of old made irresistible appeal to the northern barbarian. That has been Italy's historic misfortune. For certain centuries, under the dominance of Rome, she kept the Goths and Huns and Vandals aloof by what is called in India a "forward policy"--by throwing the outworks of civilization far beyond the Alpine barrier. But Rome fell to decay, and, wave upon wave, the barbarian--generally the Teuton, under one alias or another--surged over her glorious highlands, her bounteous lowlands, and her marvelous cities. It is barely half a century since the hated Tedeschi were expelled from the greater part of their Cisalpine possessions; and now, in the fullness of time, Italy has resolved to redeem the last of her ravished provinces and to make her boundaries practically conterminous with Italian speech and race.

The political and military aspects of the situation have been fully dealt with elsewhere; but a lifelong lover of Italy may perhaps be permitted to state his personal view of her action. While the negotiations lasted, her position was scarcely a dignified one. It seemed that she was willing, not, indeed, to sell her birthright for a mess of pottage, but to buy her birthright at the cost of complicity in monstrous crime. Neither Italy nor Europe would have profited in the long run by the substitution of "Belgia Irredenta" for "Italia Irredenta." But now that she has repudiated the sops offered to her honor and conscience, her position is clear and fine. She has rejected larger concessions, probably, than any great power has ever before been prepared to make without stroke of sword; and she has thrown in her lot with the Allies in no time-serving spirit, but at a point when their fortunes were by no means at their highest. This is a gesture entirely worthy of a great and high-spirited people.

It is true that she had no guarantee for the promised concessions except the "Teutonica fides," which has become a byword and a reproach. But I am much mistaken if that was the sole or main motive that determined her resort to arms. She took a larger view. She felt that even if Germany, by miracle, kept her faith, the world, after a German victory, would be no place for free men to live in. She was not moved by the care for a few square miles of territory, more or less, but by a strong sense of democratic solidarity and of human dignity. After the events of the past ten months, she felt that, to a self-respecting man or nation, German hate was infinitely preferable to German love. It was, in fact, a patent of nobility.

And now that Italy is ranked with us against the powers of evil, it becomes more than ever our duty to strain every nerve for their defeat. We are now taking our share in the guardianship of the world's great treasure house of historic memories and of the creations of genius. We have become, as it were, co-trustees of an incomparable, irreplaceable heritage of beauty. Italy has been the scene of many and terrible wars; but since she emerged from the Dark Ages I do not know that war has greatly damaged the glory of her cities. She has not, of recent centuries, had to mourn a Louvain or a Rheims. But if the Teuton, in his present temper, should gain any considerable footing within her bounds, the Dark Ages would be upon her once more. What effort can be too great to avert such a calamity!

I am not by way of being versed in the secrets of Courts; but I recall today, with encouragement, a conversation I had some years ago with an ex-Ambassador to Italy (not a British Ambassador) who had been on intimate terms with the King, and spoke with enthusiasm of his Majesty's character. He told me of his bravery, his devotion to duty, his simple manners, his high intelligence. One little anecdote I may repeat without indiscretion. A Minister of Education said to my friend that when he had an interview with the King he felt like a schoolboy bringing up to an exacting though kindly master a half-prepared lesson; and when this was repeated to his Majesty, he smiled and said: "Ministers come and go, but I, you see, am always here." He merited far better than his grandfather (said my informant) the title of "il Re Galantuomo." Under such a Chief of State Italy may, with high hope and courage, set about her task of tearing away her unredeemed fringes from that patchwork of tyrannies known as the Austrian Empire.

Who Died Content!

[From the Westminster Gazette]

Rex and Wilfred Winslow were the first men who died on the field of German South West Africa. The epitaph on the cross on the grave ran thus:

"Tell England ye that pass this monument, That we who rest here died content."

--DAILY NEWSPAPER.

Far the horizon of our best desires Stretches into the sunset of our lives: The wavering taper of the achieved expires, And only the irrevocable will survives. Content to die for England! How the words Thrill those who live for England, knowing not The stern, heroic passion that upgirds The loins of such as, ardent, for her fought. Content! It is a word that brooks no bounds, If from the heights and depths it takes its name: Upon the proud lips of great men it sounds As if the clear note from the Heavens came; A word that, sea-like, shrinks and grows again; A little word on lips of little men!

JOHN HOGBEN.

"The Germans, Destroyers of Cathedrals"

By Artists, Writers, Musicians, and Philosophers of France

The subjoined extracts of official documents are translated from a book published in Paris by Hachette et Cie., the full title of which is "The Germans, Destroyers of Cathedrals and of Treasures of the Past: Being a Compilation of Documents Belonging to the Ministry of Public Instruction and Fine Arts." The official documents are offered to "the literary and artistic associations of foreign countries." The editorial notes and comment are reproduced from the original text.

To the Artistic and Literary Associations of Foreign Countries and to all Friends of the Beautiful, in order that the System of Destruction of the German Armies be brought to their knowledge, the present Memorial is offered by:

Mme. JULIETTE ADAM. PAUL ADAM. M. ANQUETIN. ANDRE ANTOINE, Founder of the Théâtre Libre. PAUL APPELL, Dean of the Faculty of Sciences, member of the Institute. MAURICE BARRES, Deputy, member of the Académie Française. ALBERT BARTHOLOME. JEAN BERAUD. TRISTAN BERNARD. ALBERT BESNARD, Director of the Académie de France at Rome, member of the Institute. PIERRE BONNARD. LEON BONNAT, member of the Institute, Director of the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. EMILE-ANTOINE BOURDELLE. ELEMIR BOURGES, member of the Académie Goncourt. EMILE BOUTROUX, member of the Institute. ADOLPHE BRISSON, President of the Association de la Critique. ALFRED BRUNEAU. Dr. CAPITAN, Professor at the Collège de France, member of the Académie de Médecine. ALFRED CAPUS, member of the Académie Française. M. CAROLUS-DURAN, member of the Institute. GUSTAVE CHARPENTIER, member of the Institute. CAMILLE CHEVILLARD, Director of the Concerts-Lamoureux. PAUL CLAUDEL. GEORGES CLEMENCEAU, Senator, former President of the Council. ROMAIN COOLUS. ALFRED CORTOT. GEORGES COURTELINE. P.A.J. DAGNAN-BOUVERET, member of the Institute. CLAUDE DEBUSSY. Mme. VIRGINIE DEMONT-BRETON. JULES DESBOIS. LUCIEN DESCAVES, member of the Académie Goncourt. MAXIME DETHOMAS. AUGUSTE DORCHAIN. PAUL DUKAS. J. ERNEST-CHARLES, President of the Société des Conférences Etrangères. EMILE FABRE. EMILE FAGUET, member of the Académie Française. GABRIEL FAURE, member of the Institute, Director of the Conservatory of Music. CAMILLE FLAMMARION, President of the Société Astronomique de France. ROBERT DE FLERS. ANDRE FONTAINAS. PAUL FORT. ANATOLE FRANCE, member of the Académie Française. A. DE LA GANDARA. FIRMIN GEMIER, Director of the Théâtre-Antoine. ANDRE GIDE. CHARLES GIRAULT, member of the Institute. EDMOND GUIRAUD. LUCIEN GUITRY. EDMOND HARAUCOURT. LOUIS HAVET, member of the Institute. MAURICE HENNEQUIN, President of the Société des Auteurs et Compositeurs Dramatiques. JACQUES HERMANT, President of the Société des Architectes Diplomes par le Gouvernement. A.F. HEROLD. PAUL HERVIEU, member of the Académie Française. VINCENT D'INDY, Director of the Schola Cantorum. M. INGHELBREGHT. FRANCIS JAMMES. FRANTZ JOURDAIN, President of the Syndicat de la Presse Artistique, President of the Autumn Salon. GUSTAVE KAHN. VICTOR LALOUX, member of the Institute. HENRI LAVEDAN, member of the Académie Française. GEORGES LECOMTE, President of the Société des Gens de Lettres. Mlle. MARIE LENERU. PIERRE LOTI, member of the Académie Française. MAURICE MAGRE. ARISTIDE MAILLOL. PAUL MARGUERITTE, member of the Académie Goncourt. HENRI MARTIN. M. MATISSE. MAX MAUREY. Mme. CATULLE MENDES. ANTONIN MERCIE, member of the Institute, President of the Société des Artistes Français. STUART MERRILL. ANDRE MESSAGER. OCTAVE MIRBEAU, member of the Académie Goncourt. CLAUDE MONET. Mme. DE NOAILLES. J.L. PASCAL, member of the Institute. EDMOND PERRIER, President of the Institute, Director of the Muséum. GABRIEL PIERNE, Director of the Concerts-Colonne. M. PIOCH. CHARLES PLUMET. Mme. RACHILDE. J.F. RAFFAELLI. ODILON REDON. GEORGES RENARD, Professor at the Collège de France. JEAN RICHEPIN, member, of the Académie Française. AUGUSTS RODIN. ALFRED ROLL, President of the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts. J.H. ROSNY, aîné, member of the Académie Goncourt. EDMOND ROSTAND, member of the Académie Française. SAINT-GEORGES DE BOUHELIER. CAMILLE SAINT-SAENS, member of the Institute. GABRIEL SEAILLES. PAUL SIGNAC, President of the Société des Artistes Indépendants. M. STEINLEN. FRANCIS VIELE-GRIFFIN. ADOLPHE WILLETTE.

* * * * *

To the Literary and Artistic Associations of Foreign Countries and to all Friends of the Beautiful:

"_... It is not true that our troops brutally destroyed Louvain. It is not true that we make war in contempt of the rights of mankind. Our soldiers commit neither undisciplined nor cruel acts...._"

_MANIFESTO OF THE GERMAN INTELLECTUALS._

"_If the savants make science what it is, science does not make the character of the savants what it is._"

_EDMOND PERRIER._

"_... Scientific barbarism_."

_EMILE BOUTROUX._

I.

If we were able--at this hour, when, through the act of the Teutonic Empire, the world may witness unnamable deeds--if we were able to cite the most odious of them, we should say that, after the massacre of innocent people and all the assaults on the rights of mankind committed by the German armies, the worst has seemed to us the shameless manner in which the superior intellects beyond the Rhine have dared to cover up these crimes. It is not that we ever believed that from any corner of Germany there could come to us an appearance of fellow-feeling, in these circumstances wherein no one has any other right than that of giving himself body and soul to his native land. We know that, before speaking for the universe, men threatened by the enemy should be faithful to their flag, in the face of everything and against everything--and with resolution. At no hour, therefore, have we thought that German savants and artists could raise their voice to repudiate their armies, when the latter were going to war with the object of further extending their empire. But, at least, they should keep silence, and before the horror of crimes to be judged especially by the tribunal of the élite they should not have shown their miserable enthusiasm. "You see," as a clear-sighted Dutch professor[5] has well written on this point, "if these intellectuals were not blinded they would rather have asked themselves if, in this war that stains Europe with blood, the Prussian military authorities were not losing for centuries the reputation of the great name of Germany." And suppose it were even a small matter if they had lost only the great name of Germany, that the epoch of Goethe, Kant, and Beethoven had covered with glory. But with it they have vilified as well the noble rôle of the philosopher, of the historian, of the savant, and of the artist. In truth they have betrayed their own gods, and the professions to which they belong can no longer be honored by them--so far as the question of conscience goes, at least. And as for the sacred thing called civilization, which is above our interests and our vanities of an hour, they may have served it usefully by their personal work in the past, but they were unequal to the task of remaining its protectors when their mere silence would perhaps have helped to save it.[6] They have thus shown that, with their more or less sparkling black eagles and under the bedizenment of their Court costumes, they are for the most part narrow fanatics or paid scribes whose pen is only a tool in the hands of their master of a day. It is not even sure whether through their cult of this "militarism," to which they have given the most shameful blind-signature, they have not hopelessly condemned it, by testifying that under the rule of the German sabre human thought has no other course than to humiliate itself!... But on the score of what they are worth in professional morality and courage, agreement is certain today, everywhere.

[Footnote 5: Professor Dake.]