Page:Pontoppidan - Emanuel, or Children of the Soil (1896).djvu/165

 sought the beershop to procure a moment's artificial pleasure by means of the glass; the young ladies who at dusk seated themselves at the piano to conjure up the spirit of moonlight, the roaring of waves, or the song of the lark within four walls; all those who, in the stifling heat and pestilent air of the theatre, shed tears over paid buffoons parodying human joys and sorrows among painted scenes; the "lover of Art," who best enjoyed the sight of a raging sea or a flowery meadow framed and glazed on his wall—were not all these like the princess who preferred the painted feather to the living, scented rose?

"And yet "—he continued—"this is only the least important outer side of the case. If we look deeper into modern life, if we look for the inner life behind this ugly mask—what do we see? We see humanity divided by a great gulf, which separates—not the good from the bad, not the honest from the dishonest, the children of God from the slaves of sin,—no, but the rich from the poor, the classes who live only for pleasure, from the needy and the suffering. On one side we have the masses toiling in poverty, on the other we have a chosen few living in idleness and profusion. Here—cold, darkness and ignorance reign; there—light, splendour and satiety. In this way the culture of to-day carries out Christ's law of brotherhood among men! Thus has it fulfilled the law, Love your neighbour! And the higher the state of culture in