Page:Undivine Comedy - Zygmunt Krasiński, tr. Martha Walker Cook.djvu/39

Rh as the "primum mobile" of the State and of the citizen. Is not her martyrdom truly a constant appeal to the selfsacrifice of her sons, and to the fraternity of nations?

That the nationalities are really collective individuals, that each one has its part to play in the destiny of this world, and that the lesson to be taught by Poland is the guidance of governments by principles of abstract justice and duty, are favorite themes with the Anonymous Poet. He regards a nation as an entity differing from a merely politically constituted State; the one being merely a human, the other a divine idea founded in the very nature of things. It is the duty of nations to translate the designs of God into the world of fact; to incarnate them, to make them useful to the entire humanity. Such should be their aim and the purpose of their existence. Should they fail to fulfill their mission, should they betray it, they must perish as nations; but if they struggle for the truth, material. force alone will not be able to repress their development; their spirit must at last prevail, and they will rise into a higher life.

From this theory springs a system of political morals, not different from individual morality, nor parallel with it, but the same elevated to a higher degree. Applying these conclusions to the situation forced upon his country, the Poet teaches her that hate is death to the spirit, and always strikes it with impotence.

To struggle without relaxation is an absolute necessity, and he desires and urges it; but let it be a constant combat of good against evil, of light with darkness; let the love of God and man guide and support it, for such love is the pledge of victory! Without an ardent desire that equal justice may be meted out to all, without Christian forgiveness and moral superiority, he sees only champions of passion, or base gladiators in the wide arena.

The future of Poland looms magnificently before him; she is to resume her existence in the reconciliation of extremes and antagonisms, in a reign of peace and happiness. He has no doubt of the progress of humanity, but he assigns, as its absolute condition, the reparation of one of the greatest crimes committed since the Death on Calvary,—the assassination of a Nation, the violent