Romain Rolland

“ It will rise thence to that superior joy of a harmony of races, which may be a noble example for the rest of Europe. It is the duty of Switzerland now to stand in the midst of the tempest, like an island of justice and of peace, where, as in the great monasteries of the early middle ages, the spirit may find a refuge from unbridled force; where the fainting swimmers of all nations, those who are weary of hatred, may persist, in spite of all the wrongs they have seen and suffered, in loving all men as their brothers. ”

“ It is the monster of a hundred heads, the monster named Imperialism, the will to pride and domination, which seeks to absorb all, or subdue all, or break all, and will suffer no greatness except itself. For the Western nations Prussian imperialism is the most dangerous. Its hand uplifted in menace against Europe has forced us to join in arms against this outcome of a military and feudal caste, which is the curse not only of the rest of the world but also of Germany itself, whose entire thought it has subtly poisoned. ”

“ Would that anywhere in our press one could find a similar generosity and chivalry!
But while he sees all this, M. Rolland sees something more. He sees that this ideal of the nation, which leads, and leads inevitably to war, is in conflict throughout Europe with an international ideal which demands and presupposes peace. The nations of the modern world are bound together by the great civilising forces, trade, science, literature, art; and by those appliances of physical intercourse, the railways, telegraphs, posts, which are at once the cause and effect of spiritual bonds. ”

“ Every nation to a greater or less extent has an imperialism of its own, and whether it be military, financial, feudal, republican, social or intellectual, it is always the octopus sucking the best blood of Europe. ”

“ It will fade like a phantom before us; and the world, it seems, will breathe again. Reassure your Viennese friend, France is not about to die; it is her resurrection which we shall see. For through- out history—Bouvines, the Crusades, Cathedrals, the Revolution—we remain the same, the knights-errant of the world, the paladins of God. ”

“ There is no fatality! The only fatality is what we desire; and more often, too, what we do not desire enough. Let each now repeat his mea culpa. The leaders of thought, the Church, the Labour Parties did not desire war. That may be; what then did they do to prevent it? What are they doing to put an end to it? They are stirring up the bonfire, each one bringing his faggot. The most striking feature in this monstrous epic, and one without any precedent, is the unanimity for war in each of the nations engaged. ”

“ While victory hangs in the balance the contending nations cannot and will not think. They are straining every nerve to win, and for that purpose it is necessary for them to believe that all the right is on their own side, and all the wrong on the side of the enemy. The Germans believe this of themselves as much as the English believe it of themselves, and each nation calls to its aid all the forces of devotion and heroism which still centre about the national ideal. ”

“ There are those in this country, and in all countries, very powerful, very determined, who intend, quite frankly, to destroy internationalism, and to perpetuate hatred, mistrust and war between nations. It is these men who are the enemies of M. Rolland and of all who think and feel with him. And his friends are all those in all countries who are determined in spite of this catastrophe, nay because of it, to work for permanent peace between the nations of the west, and for their co-operation in the great work of civilisation. ”

“ None other than their governments, on whom, in my opinion, the guilt rests; the three rapacious eagles, the three empires, the tortuous policy of the house of Austria, the ravenous greed of Russia, the brutality of Prussia. The worst enemy of each nation is not without, but within its frontiers, and none has the courage to fight against it. ”

“ A sort of demoniacal irony broods over this conflict of the nations, from which, whatever its result, only a mutilated Europe can issue. For it is not racial passion alone which is hurling millions of men blindly one against another, so that not even neutral countries remain free of the dangerous thrill, but all the forces of the spirit, of reason, of faith, of poetry, and of science, all have placed them- selves at the disposal of the armies in every state. ”

“ I have no wish to die, but I can die now without regret; for I have lived a fortnight which would be cheap at the price of death, a fortnight which I had not dared to ask of fate. History will tell of us, for we are opening a new era in the world. ”

“ But though that is so, the international forces are real and vital. And it is part of the tragedy of the war that it divides not only nation against nation, but in every man the national against the international mind. ”

“ Ye know not your power, O ye of little faith! If there be a risk, will you not take it for the honour of humanity? What is the value of life when you have saved it at the price of all that is worth living for? Et propter vitam, vivendi perdere causas.
But for us, the artists and poets, priests and thinkers of all countries remains another task. Even in time of war it remains a crime for the finer spirits to compromise the integrity of their thought ”

“ It would seem, then, that love of our country can nourish only through the hatred of other countries and the massacre of those who sacrifice themselves in the defence of them. There is in this theory a ferocious absurdity, a neronian dilettantism which repels me in the very depths of my being. No! Love of my country does not demand that I shall hate and slay those noble and faithful souls who also love their country, but rather that I should honour them and seek to unite myself with them for our common good. ”

“ Young Europe, lusting for battle, will smile contemptuously and shew its fangs like a young wolf. But when the access of fever has spent itself, wounded and less proud of its voracious heroism, it will come to itself again. ”

“ Must the stronger for ever darken the others with the shadow of his pride, and the others for ever unite to dissipate it? Is there no end to this bloody and puerile sport, in which the partners change about from century to century—no end, until the whole of humanity is exhausted thereby?
The rulers who are the criminal authors of these wars will not accept the responsibility for them—they dare not. Each one by underhand means seeks to lay the blame at the door of his adversary. ”

“ Those trivial years of scepticism and hedonism in which we in France grew up are avenged in you; your faith, which is ours, you protect from their poisonous influence; and with you that faith triumphs on the battlefield. ”

“ M. Rolland is one of the many who believe, though their voice for the moment may be silenced, that the spiritual forces that are important and ought to prevail are the international ones; that co-operation, not war, is the right destiny of nations; and that all that is valuable in each people may be maintained in and by friendly intercourse with the others. The war between these two ideals is the greater war that lies behind the present conflict. ”

“ Indignant, they protest; they are all marching under arms! Liebknecht, forsooth, did not die for the cause of socialism; but Frank, the principal champion of the Franco-German union, fell under French fire, fighting in the cause of militarism. These men have courage to die for the faith of others; they have no courage to die for their own.
The representatives of the Prince of Peace—priests, pastors, bishops—have gone into battle in their thousands, to carry out, musket in hand, the Divine commands: Thou shall not kill, and Love one another. ”

“ There is not one amongst the leaders of thought in each country who does not proclaim with conviction that the cause of his people is the cause of God, the cause of liberty and of human progress. And I, too, proclaim it. ”

“ An epidemic of homicidal fury, which started in Tokio ten years ago, has spread like a wave and overflowed the whole world. None has escaped its contagion; no high thought has succeeded in keeping out of the reach of this scourge. ”

“ You socialists on both sides claim to be defending liberty against tyranny—French liberty against the Kaiser, German liberty against the Czar. Would you defend one despotism against another? Unite and make war on both. There was no reason for war between the Western nations ”

“ I have seen the three divisions of my army corps set out; the men of active service first, young men of twenty marching with firm and rapid steps without a cry, without a gesture, like the youths of old calmly going to sacrifice. ”

“ This would be the end of that fertile admixture called humanity, composed as it is of such various necessary elements.” Humanity is a symphony of great collective souls; and he who understands and loves it only by destroying a part of those elements, proves himself a barbarian and shows his idea of humanity to be no better than the idea of order another held in Warsaw. ”

“ The neutral countries play too modest a role. In the face of unbridled force they are inclined to believe that opinion is defeated in advance, and the majority of thinkers in all countries share their pessimism. There is a lack of courage here as well as of clear thinking. For just at this time the power of opinion is immense. The most despotic of governments, even though marching to victory, trembles before public opinion and seeks to propitiate it. ”

“ What we are fighting, in fighting Germany, is the national spirit carried to a height of cynical unscrupulousness which shocks even the nationalists of other countries. Let us beware lest the only result of the war be to enthrone the same spirit in our own country. ”

“ You Christians will say—and in this you seek consolation for having betrayed your Master’s orders—that war exalts the virtue of sacrifice. And it is true that war has the privilege of bringing out the genius of the race in the most commonplace of hearts. ”

“ Is our civilisation so solid that you do not fear to shake the pillars on which it rests? Can you not see that all falls in upon you if one column be shattered? Could you not have learned to love one another, or if that were impossible, at least to tolerate the great virtues and the great vices of the others? ”

“ The old refrain of the herd that makes a god of its feebleness and bows down before him. Man has invented fate, that he may make it responsible for the disorders of the universe, those disorders which it was his duty to regulate. ”

“ But is there no better employment for the devotion of one people than the devastation of another? Can we not sacrifice ourselves without sacrificing our neighbours as well? Many of you, I know, yield your own blood more readily than you shed that of others. ”

“ Each bulletin of victory, whether it be German, Austrian, or Russian, gives thanks to the great captain God—unser alter Gott, notre Dieu—as Wilhelm II or M. Arthur Meyer says. For each has his own God, and each God, whether old or young, has his Levites to defend him and destroy the God of the others.
Twenty thousand French priests are marching with the colours; Jesuits offer their services to the German armies; cardinals issue warlike mandates; and the Serb bishops of Hungary incite their faithful flocks to fight against their brothers in Greater Serbia. ”

“ What a harvest for destruction to reap! Young men of all nations, brought into conflict by a common ideal, making enemies of those who should be brothers; all of you, marching to your death, are dear to me. ”

“ Moreover I do not speak to convince others. I speak but to solace my own conscience, and I know that my appeal will find an echo in the hearts of thousands in all countries, who cannot or dare not speak themselves. ”

“ Can we not resist this contagion, whatever its nature and virulence be—whether moral epidemic or cosmic force? Do we not fight against the plague, and strive even to repair the disaster caused by an earthquake? ”

“ In particular, the labouring classes of all countries have been coming to see and feel that their common interests are more vital and important than their national antagonisms. The war has cut right across this growing international organisation, and shown that when national sentiment is appealed to, governments can still count on an overwhelming response. ”

“ The newspapers report, with no expressions of astonishment, the paradoxical scene at the railway station at Pisa, where the Italian socialists cheered the young ordinands who were rejoining their regiments, all singing the Marseillaise together. So strong the cyclone that sweeps them all before it; so feeble the men it encounters on its career—and I am amongst them. ”

“ But the two moral forces whose weaknesses this contagious war shows up most clearly are Christianity and Socialism. These rival apostles of religious and secular internationalism have suddenly developed into the most ardent of nationalists. ”

“ It will continue to be waged when that conflict is determined, and it will make itself felt immediately when the time comes for dis- cussing the future settlement of Europe. Hundreds and thousands of generous youths in England have gone to battle in the belief that they are going to a “war that will end war,” that they are fighting against militarism in the cause of peace. ”