The Hardin tribune-herald. [volume] (Hardin, Mont.) 1925-1973, 1942-06-04
A Philosopher
Faces Death

M Frenchman with the soul Oh d
philosopher and the pen OF a poet
faced death over his beloved France
in the spring of 1910 and found the
meaning of life. He was Antoine de
Saint-Exupery. and between the COW
ers Of his latest book, Flight to
Arras" (Reynal & Hitchcock, 1nc.)
he has put down as significant an
autobiography of a few hours in a
mans life as can be found.
1t was in the last days of May,
1910, "a time of full retreat, of full
disaster" that Saint-Exupery found
himself. Filled with a sense OF fulfil.
ity, he saw airplane crew after crew
being offered up as a sacrifice . .
as if you dashed glassfuls of water
into a forest fire in the hope of put
ting it out" He stood in the midst
Of a world that was cracking up
so completely around him that
death, in such a tumult, had ceased
to count"
Then came his turn to be Offered
up" With a photographer and gum
ner he was ordered out on a sortie
at 80. 900 feet and a reconnaissance
flight at 1000 feet above the Ger
man tank parks scattered over a
considerable area around Arras. He
took off. weighed down with the
sense of the futility Of it all and his
inability to understand why he ought
to die in such an empty gesture.
At six miles above the earth, when
consciousness would drift gently to-
ward oblivion if the oxygen line
fouled, when controls froze and
stray German fighter planes spat
contemptuously at him as he looked
down on a world in decomposi-
tion," Saint-Exupery struggled fruit
lessly with the philosophical mean
ing of his venture.
Then swooping down to within
1000 feet of the German anti-air-
craft guns around Arras, he sud-
denly found the meaning of it all.
Surrounded by an "ack-ack" fire
that drowned (him) in a crop Of
trajectories as golden as stalks of
wheat" flying at the center Of a
thicket Of lance strokes threat
ened by a vast and dizzying futter
Of knitting needless" he found him
self bound to the earth in a "corus-
eating web of golden wire" And in
that moment, encircled by fame
through which there appeared to be
no escape. he was suddenly released
from himself. He was stripped Of
the fear for his physical body. Sud-
denly he knew that Man does not
die . there is no death when you
meet death . . when the body sinks
into death. the lei Of man is
revealed"
And when Saint-Exupery thus
found himself he found, too. that he
was a part Of that larger concept
Mar. That his ties were not alone
with his friends and his village and
even his country. but beyond his
country with all other countries. He
became aware that He who is diff
ferent from me does not impoverish
me-he enriches me-" that Each
man bears the sins of all men,"
In this understanding he found
that 1T is Man who must be e
stored to his place among men. 1t
is Man that is the essence of our
culture. Man. the keystone in the
arch Of the community. Man, the
seed whence springs our victory"
because I am an ex-soldier I was
afraid to try to assay this book
which made a deep impression on
me. So I asked a colleague. Pauline
Frederick. a child during the last
war, to write of it. I can tell you
it's strong medicine. A tonic-if
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