New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1911-06-04


at inclusion of even the least important
of details. but a synthetic psychological
study. clearly rejecting, If not always
interpreting. strange personality
while at the same time making II. what
IL undoubtedly was. representative OF
that Slav soul which has So deeply I'M
pressed and so vastly puzzled the west
ern world during the last thirty years
or so In Mickiewicz's case the poet ana
the patriot were one. and were merged
with, but not into. the religious mystic
who. in a state that was partly eXalta-
ton and partly under the shadow OF the
twilight of the mind, made himsen the
apostle of one of the strangest OF teach-
ers. his countryman Towianski.
The life of Mickiewicz is also the MS
tory of the nascence of the romantic
movement in Polish literature, and stu
more. the chronicle of Polands suner-
ings and unouenchable hopes and as
pirations since the third partition of the
kingdom. In allegories OF the historic
struggle of the Lithuanians against the
Teutonic knights at first then openly,
when he had passed into exile and the
rising of 1880 had been drowned in
blood. Mickiewcz was the voice of his
reople in letters But he also was one
of their practical leaders, an indefatiga-
BILE organizer among a people born TO
disunion. their friend and CONSIDER in the
midst Of his own Affections, under the
burden of his wfe's insanity and of pow
erty I'm its starkest form. Thus he
worked and hoped until the day when
Asiatic cholera carried him off in the
camp of the Polish legion gathered by
him on Turkish soil to serve against the
Russian oppressor in the Crimean war.
Throughout Miss Garner keeps her
readers aware Of the cleavage that
yawns between the European OF the
Fast-the Slav. the Pole-and Teuton
and Latin and Anglo-Saxon. She does
not bewider us with il. because she en-
ables us to sec clearly, and 10 appre-
bend. the measure Of comprehension
being a matter Of individual predisposi-
ton and of previous knowledge or read
ing.
Adam Mickiewicz. the descendant OF
an impoverished noble house, was born
on the ancestral estate. near Novogro-
dek, in Lithuania. on Christmas Eve OF
the year 119S his father being lawyer
in narrow circumstances. The child's
carly years were happy ones, for the
hand of Russia had not then begun to
rest with all it's merciless heaviness
upon the conquered people. Still, liberty
was lost. and the father fostered in his
three sons and only daughter the men,
DRY of Polands glory and traditions and
customs. The NapOleOnic promises kept
alive hope: it was not crushed till the
treaty of Tilsit. 1t was an era of dan
ger. of sudden descents by police and
soldiery for smuggled letters from men,
hers of the Polish corps serving with the
French troops. The great hope OF re-
stored kingdom revived again in ISL
at the beginning of the Russian cam
paisn. God is with Napoleon, Napoleon
is with u.s." said the Poles Mickiewicz
passed his childhood in an atmosphere Of
ardently hopeful patriotism.
We know little of this period of his life.
His father died in that wonderful year"
of 1872, and left the family in strait
ened circumstances Mickiewicz entered
the University of wilma in 1914, soon
Joining a brotherhood aiming at perfec-
ton of conduct and mutual helpfuness.
1t was a patriotic society, seeking the
moral welfare of Poland through its ris-
ing generation but it was in no way
revolutionary which. of course did not
prevent it from falling under the sus-
picion Of the Russian police. For this
union Of young idealists Mickiewicz
wrote his first poems, and 1t was under
the influence of its atmosphere that he
formulated his exalted theory of the
poets life and mission.
He was graduated in 1919, and was APP
pointed a teacher at a school in Kowno
a position which he filled for four years.
During this period he had his first eX-
perience of love, an episode that was 10
furnish him with part of the inspiration
for his unfinished drama, THE Ances-
tors" in which his mystic inclinatlons
first made themselves felt 1t was at
Kowno. also, that he gathered the happy
memories of his childhood and youth.
which in later years of exile and sorrow
he was TO weave into his masterpiece.
the idyllic "Thadeus"; and it was at
Kowno that, at twenty-five, he began
his real literary career with his ode TO
Youth" Goethe and Schiller at this time
initiated him into the charm OF the ro-
mantle movement of the West. lie
began to turn the fairy lore and folk
tales of Lithuanis into ballads Then
followed "Grazyna." the first of his ma
tiona epics a song Of the valor OF the
IJthuanjans in the struggle against the
Teutonic knights and of the heroism IF
@ Lithuanian princess. Then the Rus
sian persecution began, resolute. bloody
and without mercy. On October -. ~.
Mickiewicz was arrested on charge Of
conspiracy against the government. flow
ing ont of his connection with the stu
dents union at wilma
Released i'm April of the following year
through the influence Of a friend Mickie-
vicz was condemned six months later to
exile in Russia Notwithstanding CON
slant and irksome police supervision, he
spent the next five years of his life not
unpleasantly in Petersburg, Moscow and
Odessa. social favorite and the COM
panion of the great Russian men of let
ters of the day Pushkin, Bestuzhev and