Page:The Russian Review Volume 1.djvu/231

Rh can be brought to a close only by bringing to their highest tension the creative spiritual forces which alone are capable of solving the problems that beset the nations of the West. Only now does it become clear that the War was caused, not by any lust for territorial expansion on the part of any particular nation, not by the ambition of any particular nation to gain world mastery. All this is but the outward manifestation, the physical expression of the spiritual meaning of this War. Its very height of tension has made it evident that it began, and will end, not on the physical plane, not upon the fields of battle, not in any decisive conflicts, but upon the plane of the loftiest spiritual endeavor, in a victory of the spiritual forces of the highest order. Cannon and machine-guns will not decide this struggle: they are themselves but the weapons of the higher spiritual contending forces. The War will end when means will be found for a re-creation of the old life, when the colossal power of man's spiritual forces will be applied towards the creation of a new life.

As with a heavy curtain, the War has separated the old life from the new. Whenever and however it end, it is certain that the old order of things has come to an end, and that a new order is coming in. Even now, in the midst of the mortal struggle, we can already perceive the currents of the new life. Creative energy lives side by side with destruction, just as young life springs up side by side with death. It does not die away, does not become extinguished on the advanced positions. On the contrary, it is there that it really springs into being. The hands are besmeared with blood, the face is black with powder smoke, yet within the soul, the fire of love for the native lands burns brighter and brighter, and calls on to creative activity. In the army, as in a storage battery, accumulates the energy of new life; the thunder-storm of war charges the air with the ozone of spiritual power. When the armies come home, they will be borne along by mighty wings. Behind them will be not the few years of war, but centuries upon centuries of old life; before them will burn the rising sun of a new spiritual realization.

Timid, lowly souls tremble before the awful mirage of the future upheavals, in which they behold the destruction of their personal prosperity. But the bankruptcy of their sordid materialism will be as nothing compared with the changes that will