Richmond times-dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1914-current, 1916-01-16
Does Europe Face the Fate
Of the Fabled a tlantis?
BY DIR. Paul Schlier,1an

a-y-s HI, war In Europe has filed the world
with horror. There are wars in the
80 past that can be compared with 1t. 1t
sulpasses by far the greatest calamities that
ever have bcfallen mankind Yet with all that
there Is another side 10 the question. There
Is q coSmic organism besides the one of the IN
di"idual Nature cares nothing for the joys
and sorrows oil the individual. The reason OF
nature has no relation TO that of the man. The
war with all its brutalities must be looked
upon as manifestation OF natura! forces-a
cyclone of nature
1t was just unavoidable as an earthquake
There was q Cosmic reason for il. Every
great mind ioiesaw il. Ii was necessary TO
what call evolution.
Nations ind countries, like individuals. have
their lives and tragedies. Atlantis was great
, continent. inhabited BY powerful and civil
lied nation when tho rest of the world was
merged In harbalisln Atlantis colonzed
Egypt and Central America When at the
zenith OF their power the Ataneans became
involved in war sici has befaen Europe
the whole continent submerged and sank
in the sea. All great calamitics Of nature fol.
low certain kind OF war. When social
organism is poisoned BY wrong doctrine Of
life, the sooner it dies the better Like the
civilization of the Atanteans this of the Eu-
ropoans is decadent and doomed. The vitality
OF every living body depends upon its spiritual
moi It's physical constitution
As much as We may pity the individual who
suffers In such cosmic calamities still
should be glad of the tempest that cleans ma
ture from human rubbish and decadence The
cosmic Will has no mercy npon any individual
because in going against nature the in
dividuai ignored the co5mic will. The Euro
Dean war is a gigantic pursing process Of evo
luton.
The present European was unavoidable
because the social son of Europe was sick.
Nothing out destruction could end such a sick
ness. The European disease was best re-
fected in the art and literature that preceded.
the war. With every year The paintings grew
more abnormal and ugly The music Of the
Germans, French and English all discords
and unp!easne noise.
The culture" OF Europe came 10 climax
of artifcialites The government of Europe
became materialisic and mil.taristic
On the one hand the Christian church. on
the other the naked industrialsm undermined
the old Culture The logic that invented the
printing press and steam engine could not be
reconcled with legendary religion The
Christian church that had been OF such in
1uence during the feudal period of social life,
lost its grip when Industrial civilization was
created. Money in the one hand--the Bible in
The other-ths the picture Of typical
Kulturtraeger of Europe. The fatal paradox
was to profess belief in the doctrines OF
Christianity and TO make money ut the same
time in the way most Of that money made.
The contradiction OF the two doctrines can be
considered the logical cause Of the material
istic education, the logical cause of the lack of
spiritual ideals.
Before fool dies he goes crazy Europe
went crazy before the war. Rome went crazy
before her fall. The rubbish OF materiastic
civilization grew so poisonous that 1t needed