MIGHT OF THE DEAD.

Greymouth Evening Star, 14 March 1917, Page 8

MIGHT OF THE DEAD.

OSSES WHICH ARE PRICELESS

(lAIN. ■MAURICE MAETERLINCK’S VIEWS. The dead live and move among us much more really than the most adventurous imagination can picture (writes M. M. Maeterlinck in tho. Paris “hignro ). It is verv doubtful that they do remain in their graves. It even seems more ami more certain that they never let themselves ho imprisoned there. But, without probing further into the great but ob_ secure truth, which tor the time being we cannot define more precisely, let us dwell upon that which is not disputable. As I have said before, whatever our religious faith may be, there is at least one place where our dead cannot die. I hat living dwelling of theirs is in ourselves, and for those who may have lost it becomes paradise or hell, as we are near or far from their thoughts, and their thoiiglns aie alwavs higher than ours. Ly lilting oniselves, then, we shall go to them. V\ e must take the first steps, for they cannot come down, while we can always ascend, for flic dead, whatever they were in lifetime. become better than the best of us. The least 'mod bv shedding their birdies have shed their body’s vices, foibles, and meannesses, ami the spirit alone lein.uns. which in every man is pure. Tluw uvo nn brul cloud. I.h'cjiufp tluMf 1 are no had souls. Ami what was alwavs true of all the dead is true still today, when only the best are chosen tor the < r rave* In the world wiiiuli (till the kingdom of shadows, and which really is the'ethereal kingdom of light, there are now as deep perturbations as those we feel on our earth.• The young dead flock thither, and since the beginning ol the world never were tuey as many, as strong and as anient, ll such men v.eie really annihilated, had vanished Mr ever, wen* lor ever to become useless and w. it limit voice, all that we have believed hitherto, ail that we have tried to do, all our victories over evil days and evil tosliiicls. would bo delusion utid Hck. it is scarcely possible that this should be so. even re-anling the external survival of the dead .hut it Is absolutely certain that, it is not so regarding their survival with, in ourselves. ’ Here nothing is lost and

no out! dies. Oiii’ inenmrit's iiri* peojiied by a multitude ni lu 1 nil’s stricken in llu* Howei of vonlli. ntul tar different from Unit imirrssioii of vorc. pair and worn out. which counted almost -oielv the aged and sickly, who were already scarcely alive when limy left this earth Today m all our houses, in town, in country. m palace, and in tota voumj* man (inan lives ana ri’.ics in all the hoantv oi his strength. fills the poorest, darkest dwelling with glory, such as it had never dreamed ot.lt is tcrrih!e tii,at we should have this experience, the most pitiless mankind has known, but, now that the ordeal is nearly over, we can think of the perhaps unexpected fruits which we shall ream One will soon see the hreach widening and destinies diverging between tim e nations which (nave acquired all these dead and all this ulorv, and those who have been deprived of them and it. Ami one will he aston Jsit.wl to lit id that tlm-e. which have lost most are those which will have Kept their wealth, and their men. I lie:;; aic losses which arc priceless gain, and there are gains in which one's Inline is lost. I here arc dead whom the living cannot replace, and whose thought docs filings which no living hollies can do. and we are almost all now maiidatm ies of someone greater, nobler. braver, wiser, and more alive than ourselves, lie will be, with all his com. rades. our judge. . If if be true that the dead weigh the souls of the living, and that onv fate depends upon their verdict, lie will be our guide and our champion. For this is the hrst time since history reveal'd to us her catastrophe- that man has left above his head and in his heart such a multitude of such death