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

then. under the influence Of the Eternal
City. the capital Of his faith. he turned
70 religion with all. the mysticism OF ms
nature. in November, 1890 the Polish
resurrection broke out almost immedl-
ately after the publication of MCKEE
VICES impressive ode. ITO the Polish
Mother" Room can be made here ior
only few of its stanzas, in Miss Car
ner's prose translation:
Oh. Polish Mother. when from thy son $
eyes the light of genius shines, when IRON ON
his childish brow the. noble prlde u ''e
, Poles of old looks forth: ,.., ,,,.-
When. spurning his band of little play,
mates. he runs TO the old man VINO VII
sing 10 him his nations songs when Win
bowed head he listens 10 the history OF HIS
Oh, Polish mother, i'll are these ,pastmes
for thv son. Kneel thou before the image
of the Mother of Dolours. and gaze upon
the sword that has transfiXed her bleed,
Ing heart With a like blow the foe shall
pie orr sayviour. '' When child at Nazareth,
plaved with the little cross on which ne
saved the world. Oh. Polish mother
would fain amuse thy child with his tut
ure toys. ~. ,,.,o
hands with chains and harness him 10 the
conyict's harrow. so that he may not finch
before the eXecutiOner or redden HI 'he
sight of the hangman s rope
For he may not go as the knights OF oIu
To plaut the cross of triumph IN Jerusalem
mon. As the soldiers OF the newer world 10
till the fields for ireedoi" ana water ''e
His challenger will be an unknown SPY.
perjured government VIII wage war WIN
him. secret dungeon VIII be MS pdtu'-
field. and a strong enemy VIII pronounce
And, vanouished. his tombstone will be
the scaffalds wood his only glory the briet
weeping OF a woman, ard the long night
J talks Of his compatriots.
! Mickiewicz did not join the revolted
! Poles. He had no hope of the outcome
of the unorganzed rising, and watched
the horrors that were its punishment
with constantly growing refuge in the
consultations of religion. He wrote the
third act of THE Ancestors" composed
patriotic poems. and in 1872 issued his
Books of the Polish Nation and Of the
Polish Pilgrimage" work of impress
sive simplicity. copies Of which were
found on the bodies Of fallen Polish sol
diers i'm Manchuria during the Russo
Japanese War. One is tempted To quote
it's PRAYER and its litany. but space for
bids. Noteworthy, however, is the ex-
preston in it's pages Of the Messianis-
tic" Polish literature of the period. which
held that Poland. like Israel OF old was
l nassing through fire and under the sword
in order that she might rise purified to
! become the leader of the nations and
usher i'm the spiritual revolution of the
universe.
! Nickiewicz. now settled in Paris. began
the hitter struggle for daily bread in
deadly earnest The leader of the Polish
exiles i'm the French capital, ever work
/ ing for the fatherland. he wrote 'Thad-
Gus" i'm 1874 his idyl of the peace and
/ beauty of the Lithuanian country and
/ country life before the coming of the
persecution. In the same year he mar
/ ried-four months later starvation stared
the couple in the face. Literary hack
work and journalism furnished but the
harest necessities. for Mickiewicz was
not adapted To the work and. moreover,
was handicapped by q foreign tongue.
He found forgetfulness in the mystics,
| in Saint Martin, Swedenborg. Jacob
Boehme. In 1888 his wife became in
sane. Cured. she accompanied him in
the following year To Lausanne. in whose
| university he had secured the chair of
Latin literature. Two years later he was
! appointed as the first occupant of the
newly established chair of Slavonic lit
erature at the College de France. His
wife's constant attacks of insanity wore
him down. however. physically and men
tally. and in 1911 he was on the verge
of a complete breakdown. II was at this
moment that the mystic fell easily under
the spell Of Towianski. whose battling
| personality and curiousy jumbled sys-
tenn of teaching, with its Messianism, its
pantheism. TRANSPORTATION of souls and
amazing exsltation of Napoleon, the au-
thor analyses al length Mickiewicz's
fanatic propa ganda for the new doctrine
led him to introduce 1t into his lectures.