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Show W0!" guilleret et riant-celui-lé connait aussi les destinées du peuple qui cnfanta Ulenspiegel, et il regards sans crainte, méme aux heures les plus sombres, . . . _ l'aurore prochaine des jours de richcsse et de liesse. La Belgique peut étre cnvahic. Le pcuplc belge ne sera Jamais n1 conqurs ni soumis. Le peuple belge ne peut mourir. A la fin du récit dc Till Ulenspiegel, alors qu'on le croit mort ct qu'on va l'entcrrer, il 86 réveille: " Est-re qu'on enterre, dit-il, Ulenspiegel l'esprit, Nele le coeur de la mere Flaudre ? Dormir, soit ; mais mourir, non / l'"76713, Nele / " Et il partit acec elle, en chantant sa sixie‘me chanson. Mars mil ue sait ou il chanta sa dernie‘re. tow W TRANSLlTlON by Florence Simmonds Belgium has just u‘ritttu an Iipic, the echoes oftehich will resound throughout the: ages. Like the three hundred Spartans, the little Belgian army holding at hay fnr three months the gigantic hosts of Germany ; l,emnn#l.mnirlas ; the T/ierrnopylw of litige ; Louz'uin, lim'nt lihe Troy ,' the deeds of King Albert surrounih'zl lvy his z‘aliant men; u‘hat lrgendary grandeur already (ncirch‘s these figures, whose tale history has not yet cuitipleted l The heroism of this PfO/tll‘ who, irithoul a murmur, so fired everything for honour, burst lilce u tluhultrrlap upon us at a time when the spirit of zirtorions Germany was offering to the world (I conception of political realism, resting sin/idly an force and selflinterest. It was the liberation of the oppressed idealism of the ll'est. And it seernerl a miracle that the signal should hare been given by this little nation. lllen call the Mull/5‘" appearance of a hidden reality a miracle. The shock of (longer brings out the true character If indiriduals and nations. What terr- lations this star has made in those around us, aye, eren (nanny those nmrest and dearest to us! ll'hat heroic hear/s arul {chat scrape beastsl The tmier soul rei‘eals itself. It is no new soul. In this crucial hour Belgium has seen lllt' hit/den genius of her 1am suddenly emerge. The courage that she has shown during the last three months (rt/hes adiitiration: it should not surprise any one who, in Ihe pages of historv, has felt the rigorous sap of her people fin 'ng through the ages. Small in mail and numbers, she is one If the greatist nations in lit/rope In her «bounding ritality, The heroism of the Belgians of to-tlay is the some as that of the Fleming: of Courtrai, The men of that p1 oz'inu' nererfiarul to oppose their powerful neighbours, the Kings of France or Spain~now heroes and now in .ms, :lrtur'elrles or [ngmonts Their soil, watered l2} the blood of millions of warriors, is the most futile in llumoe in 'he harrest‘s of the souls limit it sprang the art of modern painting, which the school of the Van Eye/es spread throughout the world at the time of the Renaissance, and the art 13f modern music, of that polyphon)Y which thrilled through France, Germany, and ltalyfor nearly two centuries. It has given us the great poetic (filoreseeuce of our times ,and the two writers who most brilliantly represent French literature in the world, lllaeterlinck and Verhaeren, are sons of Belgium. They are the people who have sufi'ered most and have borne their su erings most brace/y and cheerfully ; the ll/Iartyr» Nation (y‘ Philip H and of Kaiser Wilhelm; mu! they are the people of Rubens, the people of Kermesses and of Till Ulenspiegel. He who knows that amazing epic re-told and sung by Charles de Caster .' The heroic,j0yous, and glorious adventures of Ulenspiegel and Lamme Goedjak, those two Flemish wort/lies who might take their places side by side with the inmtortal Don Quixote and his Sancho l'anzaihe who has seen that dorm/less spirit at work, rough and facetious, rebellious in grain, always in opposition to established powers, uectptinq all hardships and emerging from them guy and smiling-heliez‘es in the future destinies of the nation that gave birth to Ulenspiegel, and even in the (larlu‘st hours willfearlessly await the approachin;7 (lawn of great and happy days. Belgium may be invaded. The Belgian people will tté‘i‘t')‘ be conquered nor crushed. The Belgian people cannot (lie. .1! the em! of the story of Till l/lenspiqgel, when they think he is dead, and are going to bury him, he wakes ll ,' " Are they going to bury Ulenspiegel the soul, Nele, the heart of Mother Flanders? Sleep, perhaps; but die, no! Come, Nele," said he. And he departed with her, singing his sixth fang, But no one knows where he sang his 35:. By AUSTIN DOBSON To BELGIUM For Right not Might you fought. The foe, Checked in his wild World-overthrow, Ravaged, with his remorseless band, Your ancient fanes and peaceful land, Thinking to crush you at a blow l You are not crushed-as well we know If you are troddeu, 'tis to grow ; Nor shall they fail at last who stand For Right, not illight l GOD speed you, Belgium ! Time will show How large a debt to You we owe ; To You, through all reverses grand-Men stretch 10-day a grateful hand : GOD speed you stilliin weal and woe~ For Right, not Might .' W By EDWARD CARPENTER To THE LAND AND PEOPLE OF BELGIUM AFTER all, clear Land and People of Belgium, do not be dismayed by all this that has come upon you, but have good courage and hope for the future. Mad violence and monstrous warfare may truly have damaged and crippled your body ; but they have not destroyed, and I do not think that they will destroy, your soul. Perhaps indeed your Spirit will rise all the clearer and more commanding out of this great fire of sulfering. If being small and without material power you have by your devoted solidarity and democratic courage drawn the admiration and respect of all the peoples of the earth, you have already in so doing inspired us with an idea which perhaps neither the science of Germany nor the wealth of England nor the genius of France nor the vast resources of Russia could alone have won for us-the belief that the power which ultimately rules the world proceeds from the generosity of a nation's heart rather than from the force of its armament. It may be that this belief, born of your act of devotion and heroism, will one day become the salvation of Europe, and bring to its distracted peoples -instead of endless violence and jealousies-the gift of true culture and fraternity. I09 M , |