"DAY OF THE DEAD."

Otago Witness, Issue 3277, 3 January 1917, Page 16

"DAY OF THE DEAD."

M. MAETERLINCK'S TRIBUTE. M. Maeterlinck commemorates the "Day of the Dead " in the Figaro with an essay, "The Alight of the Dead," written as probably only he could write it. It is a beautiful homily on two texts —first, Maeterlinck's cherished thought, which he expressed in the " Blue Bird," that the dead really live in our thoughts, die again when wo forget them, and come to life again when we remember them. His second text is, " What he saved he lost." The following passages are taken from this fine essay: The dead live and move among us much more really than the most adventurous imagination can picture. It is very doubtful that they do remain in their graves. It even seems more and more certain that they never let themselves be imprisoned there. But without probing further into the great but obscure truth, which for the time being we cannot define more precisely, let us dwell upon that which is not disputable. As I have said elsewhere, whatever our religious faith may be, there is at least one place where our dead cannot die. That 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 thoughts are always higher than ours. By lifting ourselves, then, wo shall go to them. We must take the first steps, for they cannot come down, while wo can always ascend, for the dead, whatever they were in their lifetime, become better than the best of us The least good by shedding their bodies have shed their body's vices, foibles, and meannesses, and the spirit alone remains, which in every man is pure. There are no bad dead, because there are no bad souls. And what was always true of all the dead is truer still to-day, when only the best aro chosen for the grave. In the world which wo call the kingdom of shadows, and which really is the ethereal kingdom of light, there aro now as deep perturbations as those we feel on our earth. The young dead flock thither, and since the beginning of the world never were they as many, as strong, and as ardent. If such, men were really annihilated, had vanished for < ver, wcro for ever to become useless and without voice, all that wo have believed hitherto, all that we have tried to do, all our victories over evil days and evil instincts, would be delusion and lies. It is scarcely possible that this should be so, even regarding the external survival of the dead, but it is absolutely certain that it is not so regarding their survival within ourselves. Here nothing is lost and no one dics._ Our memories are peopled by a multitude of heroes, stricken in the flower of youth, and far different from that procession or yore, pale and worn out, _ which counted almost solely the aged and sickly, who were already scarcely alive when they left this earth. To-day in all our houses, in town, in country, in palace and cottage, a young man dead lives and rules in all the beauty of his strength. He fills the poorest, darkest dwelling with glory, such as it had never dreamed of. It is terrible that wo should have this experience, the most pitiless mankind has known, but, now that the ordeal is nearly over, wc can think of the perhaps unexpected fruits which wo shall reap. One will soon see the breach widening and destinies diverging between thoso nations which have acquired all these dead and all this glory, and those who have been deprived of them and it. And one will be astonished to find that those which have been lost most are thoso which will have kept their wealth, and their men. There aro losses which are priceless gain, and there aro grains in which one's future is lost. There aro dead whom the living cannot replace and whoso thought does things which no living bodies can do, and wo are almost all now mandatories of someone greater nobler, braver, wiser, and more alive than ourselves. Ho will be, with all his comrades, our judge. If it bo true that the dead weigh the souls of living and that our fate depends upon their verdict, ho will bo our guide and our champion. For this is the first time sinod history revealed to us her catastrophes that man has felt above his head and in hie heart such a multitude of such dead.