New-York tribune., 1916-07-24
The Great Preoccupation.

Sir Gilbert Murray, the noted Greek
scholar. now visiting America, expresses
the feelings of many people in this coun-
try. as we'll as in Europe, when, in speak
ing Of his chosen field of study, he says
my thoughts are necessarily preoccupled
by the war If any one could go through
a great world crisis and remain aloof from
the turmoil of passing events, one would
think it ought to be the student of classic
literature. But no one is now exempt.
The war has disturbed the whole thinking
of the world, so that most of the intel
lectual labor accomplished appears to have
been done with the attention half diverted
by this universal preoccupation.
Scholarship and literature everywhere
show the effects of the war. Evidences OF
distracted attention and mental preoccu-
patton may easily be detected in the pres
ent writings of such men as Maeterhnck'
Galsworthy. H. G. Wells, Shaw, Roman
ROLAND, and even Bergson. Certain Ger
man savants, the poet D'Annunzio, and
especially Kipling, appear quite to have
lost their heads.
A great social disturbance has long been
known to have a paralyzing influence on
thought. The invasion Of Italy by the
Spaniards in 1927 put an end to the brill
liant scholarly and artistic achievements
of the Italian Renaissance. The Revolu-
ton at the close Of the eighteenth century
caused a general lull in intellectual ac-
tivity; though Goethe was able to work on
undisturbed through the exciting Napo-
leonic period. and Schiller. Fchte and
Humboldt seem even to have been inspired
bv il. The social upheavals Of the early
nineteenth century certainly left their I'M
print upon such writers as Hegel, Heine,
Victor Hugo. Carlyle and Charles Kings
ley. Our Civil War was followed by a
period of literary activity certainly in
ferior to that which preceded it. Whit
man, who felt that struggle keenly, seems
70 have kept up the standard of his work,
but even he lost something of his early
exuberance.
The mental and spiritual crisis pro
duced by the present war is greater than
that of any preceding struggle, for the
reason that this conflict has fallen upon
the most sensitively humanitarian genera
ton of thinkers in all history. Never be-
fore had the social ideals Of brotherhood,
peace and justice taken such universal
possession Of mems thoughts. The schol-
ars and the public alike shared in an un-
precedented sense Of security, a philoso-
phy of easy optimism, and belief that
progress had carried us beyond the bar
barous conflicts Of former ages.
With few exceptions, writers and schol-
ars had the modern habit Of regarding
evil and pain, not as things inevitable to-
the lot of man, but as mere superficialities
contingent upon the free choice of the
individual and the mal-adjustments OF
our social and economic systems. The
mind of the age is now struggling with
tremendous readjustment. 1t is too soon
to expect many signs of deliberate solu-
tion of the great problem. At present
there are only preoccupation and mental
unrest When men begin to think again,
they will possibly be less occupied with
the accidents of economic affairs, and will
wrestle more courageously with the deep
er cosmic significance of the problems of
living.