The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1915-04-17

fence OF country. Among the lost will
be "A host uf writer's tactual or potentially
and many men who might have been
tho fathers OF future writer's. Save
alone the angels of the last asslze, who
can compute their loss TO the song and
story ana glory--to the spiritual future
of the world?
Hut war. they tell us. sometimes in
spires great literary art. Yes. n there
is genius left to record. and u the war
really finds ethical sanction. or reaction
in the soul OF the people. Virgil Gin
his prime when the fleets OF Actium
were quilted In Cleopatrss eyes) wrote
! after the war his morning epic of I'm
perial Rome. its splendOrs silvered by
the sense OF tears In mortal things.
Dante and Milton each left tho quiet OF
books for the lurid glare and blare Of
civil war. and later. in the calm of age
in judgment passion against evil, VS.
.oned marvellously the unseen world
behind the earth where traitors are
folled, and the ways OF God TO man
are justified. The flame OF the French
Revolution. whore hell fire consumed
wrecking earthly shambles. lit across the
channel the torch OF Coleridgc and
Wordsworth, and burned white In Shcl-
I ley's "Prometheus Unbound" SPANS
stormiest period of war saw the brief
Y
vantes, her Lope de Vega, her Calderon.
But again, war may exhaust the
! strength or Impulse for literature. The
I war OF the Roses left "A long bleak gap
! after Chaucer. The silence OF the Dark
Ages WAS due to sheer exhaustion Of
wars against barbarian and n'idc
3 still again. not the stir OF war. hut the
glad shock OF new world of thought
/ FOR the spirit OF a new world OF lands
for life and traNel-this was the elcc-
! trio excitement that touched off the
: Renaissance, which brought creation
and resurrection all over Europe and
gave supreme energy in art and lItera-
ture and religion, Yet again, IL Was not
the battle glare nor glamour that quick
ened the Victorian age II was the in
tellrctual thrill of The vast idea Of evo-
luton that came bridging the way 10
/ God IL was the surge II that trernen-
dous truth Of oneness showing that rea-
son 81 the back of lfe-the assurance
that law ,the other name of loyeb and
not caprice OF fate. nor arbitrary grace
Of God controls the workings OF mat
ter and Of spirit.
So rage ana rapine are not a neces-
s!ty OF literature, nor OF life. Yet. in
ne splendid concentrations Of the uni
verse. life and literature will no doubt
wrest good out Of the body Of death now
fallen upon half our world. Already, at
ar" being spawned from the press
These viii be tne cleaning field in that
far future when some historian with
scientific Splrl. and Yet with feeling
Tor humanity, with accuracy of perspcc-
tive. with power OF massing and gift Of
noble expression. shall set down the
story of II all for men as nearly AZ pos
sbIe ~ 1t seems from Gods side
The real history OF our own civil war
has not Yet been written. The South
with the flower of her Chivalry In the
grave was too spent and sad TO utter
herself in writing. A few only OF her
lyrics survive The greatest novel. so
Tar. OF that war Mary Johnstons
Cease Fring'D mas only lately come TO
us Neither was tho North qulckened to
great literature after the war Only
The CONTAMINATION ode" and Cap
tain, My Captain" live vividly We are
SIN missing from our libraries and our
couuscls our youth who persisted. as did
IA" ninety SIN from Harvard alone.
/ Thcr" is only now arising In America a
band of poet, who may equal the singing
choir that made glorious the New Eng
. Hand before the Nar
Poets of Europe and America have,
however, rallied to the pen since tho
present conflict began In our own
country Edth Thomas ard Robert IN
dcrwuod Johnson, among the elder sing
crs always exquisite IA artistry. have
written with warm urge Of spiri, Percy
Mackaye has book OF lyrics struck out
at white heat upon the anvil of protest
and pity Ridgely Terrence offers an
, ode rising 10 the noble level OF William
| Vaughn Moody's In Time Of Ucsits-
lion" the best thing of the Cuban war
. Gale Young Rice comes with a striking
poem To tho young SLAYER whose murder
| of the crown Prince of Austria forged
the first link of the great war. Syl-.
vcstcr Niereck. for Germany. has givrn
, Of his best work Angela Morgan in
/ The cry Of the Mothers" voices A song
| that win 60 far. Martha Footc Crow I'm
The knitting Women" sends ont a grim