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 COMMENTS AND REVIEWS

CHRISTMAS, 1914

HE tidal year bringsus once more to the

Christmasseason, remindsus oncemore of
thebeautyof that ideal of human brother
hood which, for two thousandyears, the
blundering quarrelling world, absorbed in
immediateneeds and passions,has nevertheless not quite
beenable to forget.Again and again, throughthesetwenty
centuries,thestar in theeasthas beenobscured,thepromise
of peace on earthhas been outraged,theblossomingfields
have been strewn with dead, in the name of this or that
flag or cause. But the. ideal persists toward its ultimate
whichmay perhapsbe hastenedby thecoldness,
fulfilment,
theanachronistic
thedevilishingenuity, autocracy, ofmodern
war.
Illusionrules theworld-we are still led bymediaeval
dreamers-nay,byCaesar,Alexander,Sesostris.The feudal
system,theworld-olddivinerightof kings,may bemaking
its last stand at theMarne and theYser. The new illusions
must have time to grow to full stature-the illusionof
equality,fraternity,
liberty, gloriousillusion
the impossibly
of democracy-before theywill have a giant's strength to
lead men and compel nations. But the day of their power
will surelycome-may theirdisciplinebe more humane
[125]
POETRY: A Magazine of Verse

than that of the war-lords of the past, and not too soft to
satisfythehumanneed of heroism.
Meantime, byway of compensation for its awful and
immeasurable losses,theworld must get what comfortit
can out of heroicself-sacrifice,
and thepurgingand cleansing
effectofwar. Blood washes cleanerthanwater; in itsflood
the subtledegeneracies,the rottensores,of an over-ripe
civilization,
may be purified,obliterated.Alreadywe hear
a new statement of values-even we who are sea-walled
from the tumult. And the sternness of it silences a thousand
once-loudvoicesof comfortand despair.
There will be a new statement of values in the arts.
Many little schoolsare like to disappearwhile painters,
sculptors,poets, follow the danger-trails
of beauty. The
lithemuse is like to stripher followersbare of ornaments,
luxuries,
affectations; to summonthemout of theirhalls and
garrets for a stern heroic march into a wild new kingdom
of untriedand dangerousillusions-thatkingdomof the
future in which the race will be born again to its endless
sorrow,itsunconquerablejoy,and itsundyinghopeof peace
on earth.
And so itmay be with a deeper meaning than usual, a
more heroicplungeof thespiritintoveiled distances,that
we wish each other thisyearMerry Christmas.
H. M.

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