Page:Brandes - Poland, a Study of the Land, People, and Literature.djvu/47

Rh The situation is entirely different in Poland, where the young man in private life far oftener allows himself to be led by fleeting instinct than by prudent egoism, and where a single public interest (the lost fatherland, the lost independence, the mother-tongue, the national literature and art), stands immutable and imperishable.

Undoubtedly the foreign rule has tended to obliterate Polish inconstancy in this highest domain; on the other hand, it has necessarily increased the national instability within the circle of private life.

For what can an educated young man do in Russian Poland? For instance, he studies law; he can never become a judge, generally not even an official, without separating himself from all intercourse with his countrymen. He studies medicine; he can never obtain a post at a university, never be at the head of a hospital, never conduct a public clinic, therefore can never attain the first rank in his science. The result is that if he has means—and there is still great wealth in Poland, since to be rich is almost the only thing which is permitted to every one—he goes from one study to another, obtains a smattering of different branches of science, surprises the foreigner by the versatility of his knowledge and information, but has no real mastery of anything.

The following instances were given me in my own circle: A very able young man began as a jurist, passed on to medicine and became a physician, then gave that up and bought an estate, studied agriculture, mechanics, &c., for four years, introduced many improvements on his estate, shortly after sold it, and at the present time is the best theatrical critic in Warsaw. Another young man began life as a farmer, had given up agriculture for music, qualified as a virtuoso, abandoned the career, established a manufactory of instruments, made violoncellos for several years, lost interest in that, and is now working at the Academy of Art in Munich as a genre-painter.

They have too many talents and too little inducement to persevere.

The women complain bitterly of this. Like good wives they endeavour to share their husbands' interests, to identify