Page:Brandes - Poland, a Study of the Land, People, and Literature.djvu/89

Rh In German literature, for instance, the Catholic tendency of Romanticism in this century is sharply opposed to the Protestant form of the earlier literature and the purely pagan bias of contemporary literature; but in Poland, Catholicism in this century has always been in opposition, in constant, restless conflict with the power of the State, frequently blended with that love for the truth which emancipates, and with that enthusiasm which exposes to martyrdom. In Protestant countries the clergy are as a rule servile; in Poland they never are and never can be degraded into tools of temporal power.

There are Catholic priests whom their superiors permit to write in newspapers, to visit the theatres and participate in social life, because it is known that they are wholly absorbed in the double object of exercising charity and of keeping the language of Poland alive in the most remote provinces. People close their eyes to infringements of the Catholic ritual among them, nay, even at a probable disbelief in certain dogmas, because they know them to be zealous supporters of Catholicism as the intellectual Polish national power. The stamp of comparatively innocent hypocrisy, which unquestionably adheres to them, injures them only among the few. General opinion regards them favourably.

As may be seen, according to my opinion, the point of view for the appraisement of the different parties and intellectual powers, which the foreigner feels himself compelled to adopt, is this: how far do they offer a greater or lesser power of resistance to the principle which aims by all means at breaking down the individuality of the people, the new and fearful principle of Asiatic absolute monarchy? It will be only when the danger which is threatened herefrom is removed that Poland can afford the luxury of measuring the different aims of the times by a new and sounder standard. But so long as this principle triumphs, so long will this dismembered and tortured Poland be the unquestioned representative of humanity as opposed to it, the advance post of civilisation, even in domains where its form is not modern, and so long will the tattered flag with the white eagle of ancient Poland remain the old unique, adorable banner of freedom.