Part 6

If England is doing anything right she doubtless is doing right in mobilising all the nations, yea, all the human beings upon this planet, cultured or uncultured, civilised or uncivilised, of every colour of skin, of every size, to protest in this or another way against a military and inhuman civilisation which is worse than the most primitive barbarism of man. All the races of the world who are fighting to-day with England against Germany may not understand either each other's language or customs, religion or traditions, but they all understand one thing very well, _i.e._ that they must fight together against a nation which despises all other nations and tries to conquer them, to govern them, to suppress their language, their customs, their traditions and their belief in their own worth and mission in this world.

ONLY SOME ANECDOTES.

A Serbian detachment from the VIIth regiment had been ordered one night to cross the river Sava to make explorations about the positions and vigilance of the enemy. The soldiers prepared themselves to fulfil their task with silence and depression. The commander of the detachment remarked that and said:

"Yes, our task is very dangerous, my friends; we may die to-night, but remember that English lords on the battlefield to-night are in danger of death too for the same cause as we."

On hearing that the soldiers became cheerful.

* * * * *

An officer said to his private: "If I should be killed in the battle, don't leave my body here, but carry it to Kraguievaz, where my wife is, and bury it there."

It happened indeed that the officer was killed. The private asked permission to transfer the body as he was told. The permission was not given. In the night he took the dead body on his back, and after a journey of three nights brought it to Kraguievaz and buried it. Therefore he was judged by the military court and sentenced to a very heavy punishment. But he showed himself very satisfied, saying:

"I did what I was ordered and what I promised to do. Now you can sentence me even to death; at least I will not be ashamed in the other world meeting my commander."

* * * * *

In the offensive against the Austrians in December 1914 a Serbian company found in a trench three Magyar soldiers. They laid down their arms.

"Would you kill them, Andrea?" asked the officer of one of his men to prove him.

The man replied with astonishment:

"Marko of Prilep never killed a disarmed man"

* * * * *

A peasant one day dug the ground behind his home. It was after the Austrian army had been beaten and repulsed, and the Serbian refugees returned home. The peasant was asked:

"What are you digging for?"

"Our tricolours. I put it three weeks ago under the ground. I was afraid the Austrians would spit on it, and it means the same as to spit in one's face."

* * * * *

In the battle on Krivolak a Serbian was wounded in the chest. He could scarcely breathe. He was sent to the hospital. Moving slowly, he came to a spot where he saw a wounded Bulgarian lying down among the dead and crying with pain, his legs being broken. The Serbian stood thoughtful a minute, then he took the enemy on his back and brought him to the hospital, both very exhausted. He was asked:

"Why did you take such a burden, since you are a burden to yourself?"

He kept silent for a moment and then replied:

"You know, sire, I have been shooting with all the others. Who knows, perhaps _I_ wounded him."

* * * * *

"Why should not I believe in Fate?" an under-officer once asked me. "Should somebody relate to me what I am going to tell you, I could not believe it. But it happened to me. Once in my boyhood I cut the branches of a tree; a gipsy woman saw me and said:

"'Don't injure the tree; a tree may once save your life when all your hopes are gone.'"

"Now, listen! I was taken prisoner by the Austrians. In their retreat they let me go with their column. We went through a thick forest. I thought myself lost. All my past life came before my eyes. I remembered the gipsy woman and her advice. I looked around. In a few moments I jumped aside and found myself on the top of a tree. Nobody saw me. Hours and hours the Austrians marched close to my protecting tree. At once two Magyar hussars rushed back looking around, evidently searching for me. They went. Then came our first advance guard, and I slipped down from the tree and surprised them. Is that not Fate?"

* * * * *

Typhus fever raged most in Valevo, where the Austrian troops came first and brought it, a worse enemy of Serbia than even the Austrians themselves. A Serbian women's association in Nish held a meeting and consulted a doctor how they could help.

"Don't go to Valevo," advised the doctor. "Whoever enters the hospital over there must die."

The president, a well-known woman, kept silent, went home, packed her luggage and took the first train for Valevo. After two weeks she was brought home infected by typhus, and died soon afterwards.

* * * * *

A patrician mother fled before the Bulgars with two girls. For several days they had nowhere to sleep and nothing to eat. As they reached the rocky frontier of Albania, the girls asked the mother:

"And now, whither?"

The mother smiled and said:

"I will give you now the last bit to eat, and then we will go where we will be perfectly safe from enemy and hunger."

And she gave to the girls and she herself took--poison.

* * * * *

In spring 1913 the Montenegrins took Scutari after immense sacrifice of lives. Yet they were forced by the Great Powers through Austria's intrigues to leave the very dear town. Soon afterwards a Serbian from Montenegro travelled from Cattaro to Fiume. An Austrian officer saw him in his picturesque costume, and said to him with irony:

"You see after all you must yield Scutari to us."

"Yes," replied the Montenegrin, "we Montenegrins and you Austrians are as different as lions and foxes. There are many dens of lions where the foxes creep in and not one den of foxes where you could find a lion."

SERBIA ON THE ISLANDS

Serbia suffered shipwreck, and her broken pieces are now dispersed all over the islands in the Mediterranean. A little island of the Serbian refugees is formed in Greece, and also in Italy, in France, in England and in America. And what happened with the ship of the Serbian nation? She plunged to the bottom of a hell of darkness and suffering. The people from the neutral countries coming now from Serbia describe Serbia as a silent grave, her towns with deserted streets, with plundered or shut-up shops, her villages under a nightmare of starvation. There are only children and women at home, and very soon there will be no more either children or women. The Russian and Italian prisoners are brought to Serbia to make roads, railways and fortifications for Serbia's enemies, and all the males from Serbia have been taken away--who can divine where? The Serbian bishops and priests, and all the leaders of the nation have been carried away too. There are neither leaders nor nation in the Serbian country. I don't exaggerate when I say that all the sufferings of poor and sorely stricken Belgium is still only a shadow of what Serbia sutlers in that dark corner of the world which is called the Balkans, far off from all friendly eyes, friendly ears and hearts. Yet I will not compare the sufferings of all these nations crucified and martyred by the Germans. I will say only that martyred Serbia, with Montenegro, has been recently ranked among the other martyred nations: Poland, Belgium and Armenia. Her cross is very heavy, her wounds very deep, her bleeding deadly. I know, gentlemen, how your generous hearts are now quite open for Serbia. But, unfortunately, Serbia is now closed to your generosity. Between your generosity and Serbia's suffering, between your medicaments and her wounds, between your bread and her hunger, there stands a hedge of Germano-Bulgar bayonets. All that you can do is to save Serbia on the islands, and, if possible, to hurry to liberate Serbia's country from the darkest slavery in which she was ever plunged. Serbia on the islands--it seems so--will be the only population of the future Serbia. Those who escaped from the Germano-Bulgar annihilation will be the people who will enter into the Promised Land, into free Serbia. I am sure you will save in time these remnants of the Serbian nation, which is now as always the faithful English ally and admirer. I am sure you will give protection to them who have given you, in the time of light and in the time of darkness, their friendship and devotion. By this protection of Serbia, as well as of all the little and oppressed nations in Europe and Asia, you will do more for the glory of your country than by any extension of its frontier or accumulation of riches. Serbia suffers and still hopes. Serbia's hopes go to God, crossing this island of yours, crossing your hearts and souls, as the bridge between her and God. Serbia hopes to be free with all her brothers, who are suffering under the manifold yokes of merciless strangers. _Serbia militans_ did every possible thing you expected her to do. She has been for you, not only politically and militantly, correct, but childish, sincere and devout. Now she is sitting on your threshold and looking towards you with shining tears in her eyes. And the God of Heaven knows Serbia and knows England. He waits to see what you are going to do for Serbia. Who dares to doubt that you, descendants of Shakespeare and Pitt, of Carlyle and Gladstone, will show yourself less chivalrous towards the little Serbia than Serbia has shown herself chivalrous towards you?

_I_ dare not doubt it.

_PART II_

FRAGMENTS OF SERBIAN NATIONAL WISDOM

Be as patient as an ox, as brave as a lion, as industrious as a bee, and as cheerful as a bird.

Help the beggar. He is not a beggar because God cannot feed all His children, but because He placed him as a beggar on the street to test your heart.

Every penny that you give to a beggar, God counts double as His debt to you.

What is the first principle for humanity?

Some say to eat, others not to eat.

Some say to speak, others to remain silent.

Some say to hasten, others to go slowly.

Some say to work, others to idle.

Some say to pray, others not to pray.

Some say to destroy life, and others to preserve it.

What, then, is this first principle?

It is Life and Death, and God over both.

The moonlight accentuates the silence of the churchyard, the sunshine the clamour of the market-place.

By our good works we help God very little, and by our evil deeds we do Him no harm. But by our good works we help ourselves, and by our evil deeds we harm ourselves. Nevertheless, do good not for your own sake, but for God's, so that your joy may be greater and your determination more lasting.

Sin is worse than failure. Vice is worse than sin. Obstinacy in evil is worse than vice.

To be a drunkard means making an alliance with Satan, to steal means to do Satan's work, and to kill means to become Satan's slave.

Whether you go slowly or quickly, Death keeps his appointment.

There are three kinds of men: first, those who plough and sow with the devil; second, those who plough with the devil and sow with God; and third, those who plough and sow with God.

The riddle of life is so mysterious that the more we try to solve it the deeper seems the mystery, but the more we work and pray, the nearer seems the solution.

Scrutiny magnifies the enigma of life, prayer lessens it.

Whether righteous or unrighteous, you must die; but if you die righteous you will be mourned, but if unrighteous you will be scoffed at.

* * * * *

If I see your eyes, I know you a little. If I hear your voice, I know you still more. If I see your actions, I will know you altogether.

When Christ Crucified was contemptuously asked by His executioners why His followers were not trying to avenge Him, He answered: "They will not remove your sin by committing one of their own."

When St. Peter was asked why he would be crucified head down, he answered: "Because in leaving this life I wish to look toward heaven, not toward you."

A man, asked what two things he did not like, said a worm in the ear and an enemy at the door.

A man, asked what things he disliked, said an old bachelor telling love stories of his youth.

A hermit, asked what excited his compassion most, said an ox with a thorn in his foot and a man whose feet have never felt the thorn; or a thirsty eagle in a desert and a man who has never felt thirst.

There are two brotherhoods among men, that of purity and that of impurity.

Be as courageous as the days which come and go, even when they know that men are waiting to fill them with impurity.

If a man casts clay at the sun, it falls back on his face; if he casts stones against God, they fall on his head.

The man who utters lies defiles not only the air, but his own heart. The man who counts gold pieces in the dark has only gold for his sun and is miserable.

* * * * *

Both man and the air are purified by movement.

By using our hands we become strong; by using our brains, wise; and by using our hearts, merciful.

When the cow lies down to ruminate and a man goes to do evil, the cow is better than the man.

When an oak turns towards the sun to enjoy its life, and a man comes with an axe to cut it down, the oak is better than the man.

A gold piece lying shining in the dust is better than the man attempting to steal it.

Life has silken wings, but Death uses iron scissors.

Our disappointments prove only that Fate refuses to further our projects in life.

* * * * *

Happiness forgets many, Death nobody.

Life allures us with a full glass, and in the end casts us and the glass together into the grave.

Life and Death are each other's heirs.

Living, we see the bright side of life and the dark side of death, but afterwards we will see each reversed.

As many tears and sighs are caused by life as by death.

A man cannot understand his father until he has experienced fatherhood, nor can a woman understand her mother before she herself becomes a mother.

Our birth is a mingling of pleasure and pain; the pain sanctifies the pleasure.

Although opposed, the pleasure and the pain lend strength to one another.

Even the thief pays for what he steals, for in getting an inch of good for his body he loses an inch of his soul.

In this life God follows you as your shadow, in the next you will go as God's shadow.

Seeing, suffering, and death are three teachers of men. Seeing makes men wise, suffering makes them wiser, and death makes them wisest of all.

The finest music of hearts and stars is heard only in the silence of death.

In every humble superstition there is greater beauty than in any vain-glorious wisdom.

Man's greatest wisdom is nearer the wisdom of the horse than it is to the wisdom of God.

Our bodies are only bridges over which our souls communicate with one another.

Our eyes are windows of our souls, Hypocrisy is a curtain covering these windows.

* * * * *

What is Death?

If you are freezing on a winter night, it is a warm couch.

If you are hungry, it is a place where hunger is never felt.

If you are persecuted, it is a kind-hearted overlord who welcomes you at the open door.

If you are alone and forgotten, it is a hall where your dearest kinsmen are expecting you.

If you are a sinner, then it is for you a period of pain and shame.

If you are a slave, it is your liberty.

* * * * *

A slave came daily to a noisy brook and, sitting down, listened in silence. "Why do you come every day to me?" asked the brook. "I am condemned to silence by my tyrants, and I come to voice my complaints through your clamorous babbling."

A slave listened every night to a nightingale. "Why are you listening to me?" said the bird. The answer was: "My ears are denied all day by the curses of my master, and I listen all night to your voice so that my ears may be purified."

A slave looked every day towards the clouds. "O man, why do you look at us?" said the clouds. "Because," said the slave, "I hope you understand my thought, and will tell them to Him to whom you are nearer than I am."

* * * * *

Until a man is a father he looks back to his own father; when he is himself a father he looks forward and loses his father.

Men with little wisdom have much passion; men with much wisdom have great compassion and little passion.

Never in prayer try to teach God what He should do for you, but rather ask Him what you should do for Him.

Too much light as well as too much darkness causes blindness.

Construct a better world, and then you may say that this one is bad.

When you kill a lion, you can say: "I sinned because I killed my brother." When you kill a man, you can say: "I sinned because I killed myself."

If you love God, you cannot fear Him; if you fear Him, you cannot love Him.

Be humble, for the worst thing in the world is of the same stuff as you; be confident, for the stars are of the same stuff as you.

* * * * *

When the wind blows, the fool tries to compete by shouting.

Summer is most loved in winter, and winter in summer.

Ugliness moves slowly, but beauty is in great haste.

God speaks every language except the godless, God grants everything except eternity, God takes back everything but sins.

The best thing that the last man on earth can do is just what the first man could do. He can kneel on the earth, his mother, and pray to God, his father.

The fool is wisest when he sleeps; the wise man is most foolish when he dances.

When young men stand at the bier of an old man, it is pathetic; if old men stand at the bier of a young man, it is grievous; but God sees all and keeps silent. Why should you lament?

* * * * *

If you kill a solitary man, his kinsmen from the other world will persecute you.

Nobody can forever conceal what is good in you, nor can you yourself conceal what is evil.

There is no real death except the death of the soul.

There is no real joy except the joy of a righteous man.

The joy of the sinner is half joy and half retribution.

The eyes are the controller of the tongue. A clever man tells his lies with his eyes closed.

What is the news?

There is no news but what is half old.

It is better to talk about what you know than to talk about what you do not know.

He who can love passionately can hate passionately. Maternal love is most enduring, a brother's hatred the shortest.

There is no harvest without seed. We see often a harvest of evil, the seed of which time has concealed.

* * * * *

In the life to come all our senses will be doubled and quadrupled, so that when we see we shall see not only with our eyes but with our whole being, and when we hear and when we smell or taste it is the same. Thus will it be where the morning sun shines always.

We see only the beams of the sun, but the spirits also hear them; we hear the song of the nightingale, but the spirits also see it.

In the next world what we now hear we shall see; what we now see we shall hear, and shall taste what we now smell.

Gold shines, and by shining speaks. How can you understand its language? God does, because He sent its language to the gold.

* * * * *

What is man? Something between God and clay.

What is clay? Something that God makes.

What is God? Something of which clay and man are the shadow.

It is no wonder that an animal should be selfish, not knowing its end. But it is wonderful that man can be selfish, knowing and foreseeing his end.

* * * * *

A Turk once asked a Serb why the Serbs wept so much. The Serb replied, "To wash away your Turkish sins."

A Turk asked a Serb why the Serbs reminded people of the field of Kossovo. "Because," said the Serb, "our dead are better than your living."

All men are born in an impure state, but only the good reach a state of purity in life and in death.

Men are unhappy when striving to know all truth, because truth is greater than their life, and for this life only a small part of truth is necessary.

A wolf, asked when he would stop killing sheep, replied, "When man stops killing man."

The grass in the field, asked if it were not ashamed always to see nothing but the feet of men, replied: "Not so much ashamed as men should be when they never see our heads."

* * * * *

A good custom hallows life and keeps men in brotherly unity.

Not God, but the prophets make division among men.

God likes it more if you think, than if you speak about Him. In speaking evil of Him you do harm not only to yourself, but to your hearers too.

Different languages, but the same prayer; different prayers, but the same God.

God is the spirit and form-maker; man is only the imitator of the form-maker.

A silver piece, asked what it was worth, replied: "If a man could shine as I can, then I am merely worth a man."

When the Lord speaks you have to be silent; and the Lord speaks in the night through the stars, in the day through better men than you.

The foolish man speaks much because he has to apologise his foolishness, but why must you speak so much?

* * * * *

The man who fears customs fears the touch of dead and living.

Under every success lies a new enemy, the demon of pride.

Do not despise even the cicadas; their song is the only solace to the slave in prison.

Among all immoderate things the unrestrained tongue is the most annoying.

Death is not a punishment for him that dies, but a warning for the living.

A long work and a short prayer edifies the house, but a long prayer and a short work destroys it.

Life without prayer--night without moonlight.

God is not hidden, but our eyes are too small to see Him.

The smile in the sunshine is easy and common; the smile in the stormy weather is beautiful and rare.

It is better to go to bed hungry than with a stolen supper in the stomach.

* * * * *

If you like to get friendship from a man, say only a good word about him in his absence. If you like to pacify a dog, say a good word to his face.

Life gives to every slave an empty glass to fill it either with tears or with hopes.

When God wishes to punish a man He lets him be born among the rough neighbours.

The night rebuked the clouds because they were so black. The wolf rebuked the dog because he was so wicked.

It is better to be as patient as God than as righteous as God.

By true prayer we confess our sins; by false prayer we report our deeds to God.

Every welcome guest may fail to come, except death, the most unwelcome.

The grass asked a cow: "Is it right that you eat me and tread on me?" "I don't know," replied the cow; "but tell me: Is it right that the grass grows up from the bodies of my parents and will grow up from my own body?"

* * * * *

Solitude is full of God. Worldly clamour is godless. In solitude one feels both eternity of time and immensity of space. In worldly clamour one feels eternity and immensity only when death intervenes.

The birds think that men cannot understand each other. Why should not men think better of birds?

The wise man feels God most in the silence of night; the child most in the crash of lightnings and in the rolling waters.

Three persons rushed the same way: a child, a learned man and a poor man. "Where to?" asked the angel.

"To grow old quickly and to see God," said the child.

"To acquire profit and learning, and to know God," said the learned man.