The Columbus dispatch. (Columbus, Miss.) 19??-1922, 1921-09-04
THE DYING ONE.

Europe is dying" soemnly means Anatole
: France dean of the French school of skepticism,
the literary cult that had such a vogue in West
em Europe in the decade before the war.
To the writer's of this school, nothing was
worth while Life itself was only toerable con-
diton that one did not examine it too closely.
Virtue was pose morality convention; re-
Iligion superstition that science had dispelled.
To these writers romantcism and material
ism were curously blended. They wore their
caps and bells in the most solemn places. They
Knocked all serious effort, and in their works SEN
suality was always on parade. TO beautiful
woman all things were permitted except virtue
Purity was not problem of morals, but one of
sanitation They were seekers after the sensa-
tional Honesty and thrift were tiresome because
! thew were commonplace Patriotism was only a
IpIatitude They went often to dens of iniquity
h never to Notre Dame They reveled in abstract
ideas, and delighted in building little paper
Utopias in which muscle triumphed over BRAIN
When credulous people took them seriously they
shreked with laughter, like children who had
frightened others by playing ghost
To their high priest, Anatole France, Europe
after the war is not civilization reborn, rising
from the ruins of crumbling despotsms, but a
decrept old man lettering bllndly towards an
open grave Only the past was worth while, and
that past is as dead the Pharoahs sleeping the
sleep of centuries in their colossal tombs. These
/
things, find themselves suddenly standing amid
the wreck of all that once made life to them
worth living They are as dead leaves drlv-
on bv the chill winds of autumn, and they cry out
in their disenchantment that Europe itself is
dying.
It is the soTowfu wall of one who sees his
illusions falling, petal by petal, like the leaves OF
Ia dead rose, who views the abyss at the end OF
the trail to which skepticism and unbeef in
variablv lead. The human fralities, Knocked in the
wears when muscle and brain were alert, are now
taking their revenge. Failing eyes cannot en-
vision the new dawn that is following the night
Of desolation of the World War. The dissolution
he faces becomes to him the sepulcher OF the
world.
There is an ineffable sadness in this lament
Of the author of "Thais" Penguin Island" and
'The Revolt of the Angels" 1t is confession of
failure that is always depressing to hear; the
lament of one who finally aWakens to learn that
there are things in life which really are worth
while that cannot be continuously scofted at
with impunity Faith is the only staff that Will
sustain declining years. faith in humanity, 1alth
in country faith in the future, faith IN the etern
al God The pilgrim who journeys through the
winter of life without this support is certain to
limp badly. 60
Europe is dying" Nay, the reckless, friy-f
oIous sensuous Europe of which Paris was the
shrine and Anatole France the idol, is dead But
a new Paris a new France and new Europe
have been born with a spirit that faces resolute-
" the serious things of life, that is no longer
satisfied merely to be amused France, the writer,
sees only the ruins left by the war; but France,
the nation, sees the wheat and flowers growing IN
the spaces between the stones Courage is born
Of suffering He who has never smelled powder
NAV be boastful. but he is not yet brave.
The Europe which Anatole France laments
perished at the Marine; but that was IN reality
fictitious Europe, civilization based on the
most striking inequalities on despotism IN Rus
STA. militarism in Germany, socialism IN Belgium
and Italy, a kind of democratic monarchy IN
Great Britain, and republicanism in France what
was virtue in one country was crime in another.
The capital of each nation was infested by secret
service agents of every other. Secret diplomacy
made mockery of pretended national honesty Inc
balance of power was suspended over big gun
wherein chaos resided Big nations fought over
little ones like dogs fighting over bone.
That Europe passed when the spirit OF self.
determination was born on the battletields OF
France. Its legitimacy was established by the
Treaty of Versailles and the new order IS max
ing slow but substantial Roadway 1t IS not .
Europe that is dying; it is Anatole France
If John d. Rockefeller at the age of eighty
four can grab off a comely young spouse, there