A LEGACY OF HATE.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 14192, 9 January 1917, Page 4

A LEGACY OF HATE.

HOW SHALL WE REGARD THE GERMANS? M. Maurice Maeterlinck, the Belgian essayist arid: dramatist, wrote a striking essay for the Parisian magazine ■ Les Annales, on "The Walk's • Legacy ©t Hatred." The following-translation was 1 ' prepared for the New' 'York* Times V\iv l rent History: '' ' '■?*'•* - ' 0 ' Before we reach- the end ; of this war, whose*lday?'of grief and f error no'w'seetir to be :• numbered* ' let iis • weigh ll for the last •fcime >l ftir f oUr minds the "words oi? hatred on usi v We'fliave to deal with the strangest of enemies. ; " He.' ;.has 'deliberately, 'scienfciii- . *„ call/* invf till Senses, '■ without ©r ; exeufee, revived all . . the crimes Which we had believed to fce' forever buried' ' in. the ' barbarous past. He has trampled wider, foot 'aU;jtfie' i>re u -•• ceptS'Vwhich : 'the i hunmn i 'race' had painfully vgieafted out of^he! cruel darkness df its origins $ he h&3» yioliauted 1 all the laws of- justice, of immanity, '/of loyalty,, of honor, from th« highest," which almost touch the divine, to the simplest and most elementary, which still appertain to the lower orders. There is nd longer any doubt on -tljis point; the proof of it* has been established aiid re-established, the certitude 'definitely acquired. . .. > !Hut.= on 1 the other hand', it is no less virtues which it would not be right for' cirtues- which it would not' be right for us to de'liy ;' for one" hohbrs one's self by recognising .'the valor'-bf those" whbm one combats. He rhas gone to death in deep, • compact, disciplined iri&sses, with a' blind, obstinate, hopaless heroism, for which history furnishes no' example equally sombre^: arid which often lias compelled otir - admiration ; arid; our - pity, I am well aware 'that \this. heroism is not like that which w-e Ipi>e. : For us heroism should be above &11, ; voluntary, free 'from y all Restraint, ' aictiye?, ardent, joyous, spontariebiis ; whereas With them it is mixed Avith . much ofc servility,, of passivity, of. sadness, of gloomy, UgnoramV mass submission, and of fears more, or less bass.' Yet- in a; inprnent of peril these' distinctioiis . vanish for the most part; na' force oh earth co\ildr 'drive toward death; a nation /that diidf not have within i&elf the will, to confront death. Our have not deceived themselves on this" point.' Ask thbse who.-re-turn from the trenches. . They execrate the enemy • they have a horror of the aggressor, unjust, arrogant, gross, too olten" cruel and perfidious ; they do not hate tha man, they pity Mm; and, after, the battle, in the defenceless wounded or the disarmed : pris6her ihey recognise with astonishment a brother in misery who, like -themselves-, lias been tryiiig to do 'his duty, and who has laws. which he considers high and necessary. Underneath the intolerate enemy they see the uufortnaute mortal who, lwewise is bearing the burden' ; of lit'o^ •'.'.- <:'<- f;. Leaviag out :of account the unpardonable aggression, add the inexpiable violation of treaties, very little is lacking ;to, make 'ibis war, Respite -its madness/ a^ bloody, but •magnifieent itestimonial oi grandeur) -, of heroism,'- of-, the spirit ot sacrifice. tHtunanity waa-ready to 'raise itself above itself/. to- surpass all that it had -achieved up to this hour.. . And it has, done it. We ■ haid' not known. \,oi nations that were y capable-, through months and years, of Renouncing- 'their ■ rest, their security, their wealthy t/Uieir well-being, aIL that they ; possessed i aial , lovedj ! -'.even, life . itself, rto accomplish what they believed to-be their- 'duty^. .We had never seen' whale natrons that were able to understand and admit that the .happiness • of each :of thbsta living at the moment of trial does not count when it' is a question- of .the honor of those no longer living or of. the happiness -of those not yet«'living.*i ';> .■* * l r • Here rwo: stand- dn. summits that liad never' before .been attained. And if, on. the part of our enemies, this unexampled * Teu'njunciation. : had not • been poisoned- at "it«r source;- if "the war Which they wage 'against .jus' h&d 'been;'aß ! beautiful, as- loyal;'. a&-r generous, as "chivalrous „ as that •.which; we wage^ against them, one might toeliewe;that'-it-'Wask to. be- the last war, imd v that it. 'Was to'endj not in mortal combat, but in the awakening 1 from a bad dream with * noble and fraternal^astonishmenkj They have not pormitted this to be so.;-. an,d it is their deception, we may rest assured, that the future will have the greatest difficulty in^pardoning. Now, .what. ana we going to doT vMust we'go on hating to the end of v oqr 'days? is the heaviest load that man can bear on this earthy sOid we should be bowed down by the burden.: .But, on .the other hand, we do not wish to be ''again the victims tof trust and love. Here- once more our soldiers, in their clear-eyed simplicity and nearness to truth, anticipate thy future and ; tfeach 1 us whatsis best to do and not to do. As wo have seen, they do ( not hate the individual/ but they do' not trust him. They do not see the human being iu him until he is without arms. They know from sad: experi' cnce that aSjlohg .Ashe has .weapons he does not resist ;-thV mad impulse, to-in-jure, !to b'etray r to kill, and that he becomes good only When he is powerless. Is he thus -by^nature, or has' he been made 'thsu lay those who lead him? Have the chief s carried away the whole '. nation, prhas : the whole nation driven its chiefsi? ; -'Haive 1 the leaclera made -he people like themselves, or 'have the people^ chosen the leaders and supported' them only becatise the"y resembled themselves ? Did the disease come from below or fi'bm'abovd, or" waa^ it everywhere".! This is the .great. obsCu'fe point. of the awful ?idve'nture. It is riot easy ,to explain, arid it is istilL less easy to find an excuse. .-'■' -v ' . : '.• -' : '-■ ■ ' ' • If -th^* .prove' that they have been, deceived ancT corrupted '. by then 1 mastera, they aro'piwing'at tlie same time thatthey ave.Jesa .intelligent, less ih'mly grounded "in justice, honor, and humanity — in a word, letM civilised —^thairtlioKe whom -they pretend to- have a right to' subjugate Ainf the 1 -'iranie w w superiority which their own demonstration • annihilates; on' the ;other hand, if'they do not prove*, that, tlisir errors", - tlieir aud 'their cruelties, which it ia no longer possible to deny, are to be imputed solely to ,tKeir mastersvthese sins fallback iipon tlieir. own heads with all their pitiless weight.' ■•»!■• dp" not' -ls;now how 'they i will escajie . the jaws of this dilemma, nor what decision will- be rendered by tne fiiture, which is wiser than! the past, even as the lnorninp, to q"oute the Old iSlavip prov,erb, is wiser than' the night. Meanwhile let- us imitate the prudence of our .admirable soldiers, /who know better than we do what path to ■■■follow. •■