Page:Brandes - Poland, a Study of the Land, People, and Literature.djvu/57

Rh the past. They have asked themselves with anxiety if Polish culture, by maintaining its relations with Catholicism, as, for instance, do the great poets of the romantic school, Mickiewicz and Krasinski, will not come to be antiquated and outstripped in the general work of Europe, and some eminent men, among them first and foremost, have felt obliged to express themselves on the religious question in a manner which has wounded some, and caused anxiety to more. Recently so distinguished an author as Sienkiewicz, who commenced his career as a radical, and whose opinions were long radical, has been seen from prudential reasons to ally himself with the conservative party. It is much to be regretted, however, that by receiving a considerable annual sum for holding a sinecure as nominal editor of a clerical newspaper, he has complicated his situation and lost a great part of his prestige.

There is a dilemma here, which troubles the Polish intelligence more than anything else. Many of the best people dare not say what they think, lest they should injure the cause, which is to them the holiest, or rather the only holy cause: the cause of Poland. Other eminent men are led to the reflection, which under common conditions would be unquestionable, but which in this case does not suffice, that there are ideas which have greater weight and importance than the idea of nationality. The question becomes practically a question of expedience, toleration, and tact.

My purely personal relation to the question was this: those on the progressive side in Warsaw were inclined to appropriate me, while isolated men, who although entirely liberal, desired for political reasons to avoid a breach between the patriots and the "Young Poland" party, earnestly desired my presence in Warsaw, because they thought it possible that a foreigner, who had friends in both camps, might effect a reconciliation. They sought, therefore, to make use of my stay in Warsaw to bring this about, and it was said to me on a certain occasion that, that evening for the first time in fifteen years, representatives of the different parties were assembled in the same room. What I personally saw in Warsaw could but give me a lofty idea of the harmony of the Poles as a people;