The Washington herald., 1920-02-08


The might Of Europe alone had
seemed to her invulnerabie; secure
against every predatory power. And
in that brilliance forgot my doubts.
THE brilliance has faded, the firm
ground which bore my throne is swept
away by the second deluge. In q fog
of blood which lies like q pail upon
the whole continent, day and by night
men are bewailing their misery and
lamenting their dead.
Whole nations are In rags, wasted
to skeletons: every street and high
way is lined with the sick and the
MANNED, with emaciated mothers.
withered brides. pale. enfeebled chill
dren.
May I now at last be granted
the happy privilege Of dying? And
shall I be tortured till my last
breath. even as the wolf tortures
the poor dying lamb by the doubt
whether the fruit of Europa's womb
was begotten by god or beast. was
highest expression?
Wisdom. noble lady. teaches us
to interpret the venerable myth.
Long since and Oft, so long as man
has inhabited the earth, even be-
fore one Of its provinces, was called
Phoenicia. has many a strong OK
with glistening skin and flashing
eyes been worshipped as an Of
spring of heaven.
The delicate hands Of maidens
have plated wreaths about his
horns and upon his silken, shining
back great nations have packed the
burden Of their fate as though this
were mere worthless freight to be
- a.
est storm.
Europe Object Lesson.
Not always has he safely borne
| his burden to the shores Of a Crete.
From every part of the ancient
world l can quote you names of
such idolized bulls.
When they stirred their limbs.
the clang of bronze rent the air.
and the cry of their throats was
as the roar of a thunder machine.
while their hoofs trampled the fer
tile fields planted by man.
Even when the Son OF Mary had
lived His gospel to the bitter end
upon the cross and so had created
the imperishable example of heroic
sacrifice for others, the example of
divine redemption. even then were
they sill worshipped as heroes and
demi-gods.
Your Minos was a hero to his
people after he had built q feet and
had thus been the first to organize
sea power; and yet to us his d.
vine descent becomes credible only
because he strove for Justice and
built a nrmer abode. for righteous
ness than any state had even found
for il before.
For this, Europa, is the way
that leads upward, the only way in
which the human can grow out of
the animal and become the image
of the Divine. What have been the
monstrous happenings. great and
painful, which your eyes have be-
held these thousand years. but an
eternal seeking and cropping after
this way?
Nations Have Crumbled.
Names have vanished, nations
have passed, thrones have crumbled,
the scythe of the reaper Death has
mown down Whole generations, be-
cause the dwellers on the earth, are
not yet willing to recognize that
the might of the individual must
be bounded and limited by the right
Of his fellow man. even as the might
Of a nation by the right of it's
neighbor; and that the individual
or the state is dishonored when, IN
the blind chase after s/phsntom of
individual or national power and
honor, they trampel the rights Of
others under foot.
And because men have refused
to receive this truth, which was
announced in the sacred cave of
Minos, again from Sinai, in the
world of a Buddha and a Plato, and
proclaimed more loudly still upon
the hill Of Golgotha, because they
have refused to make that truth the
guide of their actions, for that rea-
son the new deluge was inevitable,
for that reason Asia, the primeval
home of man. is knocking with hard
knuckles at your door and is warn
ing you.
Warns Against Conceit.
Warns me to yield my arrogant
position of domination and to die |
the death of the damned?
mo, the continent which has
produced so much of science and
art, such sweet and mighty mu-
sic, such miracles of words, of
stone, and of color, cannot die.
The body out of which Athens
and Rome, Ravenna and Florence,
merry old England and sweet
France, the art Of the Netherlands,
and Nuremburg, Weimar, Koenigs-
burg, the miracles of faith, of am
bition, and of achievement, have
had their birth. is immortal.
But the continent which bears
your maiden name must rid itself
of the vain conceit that It olen is
forever guaranteed unchallenged
supremacy.
1t ought and must learn to re-
member how much of faith, of am
ment, of religion, Of science and of
art was brought to 1t from other
zones, and that It, too, is destined
reasonably to adapt itself to the
reason of things foreign.
Ideals Are Needed.
The continents. races and peo-
pies that have been divided up in
the world by the accident of geo.
logical upheavals must strive to-
ward a reblending of their ethical
ideals. You told me the story of
the bull which carried Off the un-
suspecting princess.
You did not speak of the dream
which long before that experience
both terrified and delighted you. Do
you not remember? Two continents
contended for Europa. Only one
did you know: Asia.
"The name and character of the
other you could not then have
dreamed Of. nor could any seer then