Page:Brandes - Poland, a Study of the Land, People, and Literature.djvu/96

84 drawings and paintings on the wall. They are modern not only in their mode of thought, but in sight and sense. They are wild birds, and since birds of a feather flock together, significantly enough, the one among them who wields the most spirited pen is married to a remarkably beautiful wild Indian girl from South America. She is adapted to Poland in so far as it has been found impossible to teach her any idea of money or its value.

In this circle Bohemian freedom rules, a puff of real intellectual freedom which fills the lungs; but it fills them in complete silence, making as little noise as possible. Here also an invisible pressure descends from above. Here also an everlasting damper is laid upon the spirit—a damper of seriousness, of melancholy, a quiet despair of ever being able to accomplish any good in life. Art and ideas are used as a means of forgetfulness. And all these young men, whatever they are—writers, journalists, draughtsmen, physicians, engineers, &c.—must, wholly apart from the contest for bread, daily fight a double battle, receiving ideas from the surrounding world of Europe and imparting those ideas to their own world.